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Action MMOs: Welcome Back to the Future
Action MMOs may not be new, but they’re about to take over in a big way.
What’s an Action MMO? In simple terms, it’s an online RPG that plays more like a console game. They generally use a third-person view and don’t have an individual enemy targeting system. Instead of clicking on the bad guy, you just aim in their direction and cast the spell. The outcome is a faster-paced and more-exciting gameplay experience.
Tera Human Mystic Gameplay vs Quest Monster
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_84bVdjBT_I]
Sega arguably created the Action MMO genre as we know it today with Phantasy Star Online for the Dreamcast back in 2000. You could dial into the servers, hang out with other players in the lobbies, and then team up to tackle expansive dungeons. That doesn’t sound like much today, but at the time it was revolutionary, especially on a console.
Phantasy Star Online Original Trailer
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyEnJCgTZds]
It’s surprising that now, ten years and half a dozen consoles later, we haven’t seen a explosion of Action MMOs. They fit perfectly with a gamepad instead of the standard mouse and keyboard. We’re currently in a transition phase, with a handful of online PC games that support the Xbox 360 gamepad trickling out. It’s not a huge leap to take that experience to the console.
Dragon Nest: Trailer
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaNPcxaf5m8]
The Xbox 360 and PS3 have sold 105 million units combined worldwide. A number that makes the 11 million World of Warcraft subscribers seem tiny. There’s a huge untapped market of console gamers that don’t play traditional MMORPGs and developers are starting to figure this out. A few Action MMOs have been released for the PC, but the real room for growth is on consoles. With World of Warcraft being the 800 lb gorilla in the MMO room and The Old Republic shaping up to be their 600 lb cohort…well, let’s just say that you don’t want to be in there.
What will be the console MMO that changes the game? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. A Halo MMO was in the works at one point. That would be a perfect fit. Bungie may or may not be working on an MMO set in a new universe. Sega will be releasing Phantasty Star Online 2 this year, although on PC. Blizzard is working on Titan, which one analyst said is a casual MMO. There are many possibilities, but I wouldn’t expect anything big until the next generation of consoles roll out in the next one to three years.
Halo cancelled MMO!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFjZDR4PSDI]
Whoever can bring a quality Action MMO to consoles is going to clean up. If you think World of Warcraft is big now, wait until one hits 30 million subscribers on consoles, or more. It’s not that much of a stretch.
Some Action MMOs to keep an eye on:
-Matt Hostler, Project Manager