Launching January 2010...

It’s been a few weeks now and I think it’s safe to say that the Champions Online experiment is all but completely over.

As predicted, A.J. has abandoned the game for Aion, taking P.D. with him. This was not an unexpected turn of events, but it did come sooner than I thought it would. Even my own patience with Champions has been pushed to the brink and when those free 30 days finally run out, my league of heroes will fall into limbo with it.

I really wanted to like Champions Online, and at some level I still do, but this game has problems that are simply unacceptable for a 2009 MMORPG. It’s not the buggy gameplay, the frequent downtime, or constant balance changes. Those were anticipated and accepted as the unavoidable consequence of any launch. But Champion’s goes beyond these issues with mistakes that you wouldn’t think possible of a team that has been in the MMO business longer than Blizzard.

The chief problem with the game is a simple one. It was not ready for launch when it launched.

Content in this game is slim. Unlike the golden standard that is WoW, Champions launched with barely enough content to reach the level 40 level-cap. There are exactly five ‘zones’ in the game and you need to spend time in every one of them to continue progressing. For a game where the core attraction is creating a multitude of different heroes, there is a disturbing lack of variety of places to go and things to do. Every character you make will inevitably follow the same path and fight the same evil-doers through the bulk of the game.

If this were not already a rather significant issue with the game, it was made worse on the first day after its release with a patch that significantly reduced the amount of experience given by quests.

To say this decision, credited to Bill Roper of Hellgate: London fame, was shortsighted would be an understatement. Now not only was there a lack of things to do, but in many cases the X number of quests created for a particular level did not give enough experience to bring the player up to the next level, resulting in an eventual ‘drought’ of quests all together. This left eager heroes at various points in their progression to the much sought after ‘level cap’ without anyway to achieve their goal other than rampaging around the world killing anything and everything that will give them experience.

Very heroic.

As I said, I expected bugs, I expected downtime, I expected imbalanced powers. I did not expect that when I purchased the game, I was buying into a ‘paid beta’ and that it would be another 3-4 months before the game would be actually ready to launch.

Oh well, at the very least I can say I was there when Cryptic tricked thousands of people to pay them $50 to play half of a game.

The Future Of MMOs...

In the last several years, MMOs have become an essential part of the rural geek’s lifestyle. When ten miles separate you from the next gaming enthusiast, on-line play becomes a vital feature. And while these soul absorbing, social life crushing, monstrosities can be a tiny bit addictive, the alternative is a life of solitude. There is a misconception that on-line games hinder social interaction. This theory, however, assumes that social interaction would have occurred otherwise. And really, when it comes down to choosing between talking about the weather with a live person you share nothing in common with or comparing stats and strategies over vent with a person who has a shared interest, the choice is easy.

For a long time now, World of Warcraft has dominated the MMO market. In fact, its reign is so spectacular that dominated doesn’t seem an apt enough word to describe it. So while I’ve been able to break away from the siren’s call of epic loot and PvP contests, (my last escape was inspired by a return to an older on-line stomping ground, City of Heroes) I always manage to find my way back.

In theory, I suppose I could quit WoW for good, but that would likely require a newer MMO with sufficient enough pull to get me away and keep me there. With WoW having such a firm stranglehold on the market, could such a creature even exist?

Champions Online has me very excited about a great many things. Like City of Heroes before it, the biggest draw comes from the ability to customize your own spandex-clad super guy with an unprecedented level of options. I have no doubt that I will spend almost equal amounts of time creating characters and actually playing them.

But will it be enough? My return to City of Heroes was enjoyable but brief, and while it was fascinating to see what changes had come to the game over the years, it wasn’t enough to hold my attention for long. I suspect it will at best be a welcome distraction. A modern alternative to the classic fantasy setting of Azaroth.

But could an MMO beat WoW at their own game? Is there somebody out there that could make a fantasy MMO that can hold its own against Blizzard’s juggernaut? Warhammer tried, and for a while it looked like they had a shot. Fresh ideas, a popular license, and newer technology. They seemed like a good candidate to split the market and provide a viable and equal second option.

It didn’t quite pan out that way and while I’m sure somebody out there is playing Warhammer online, WoW’s status remains. So who’s next to enter the ring?

Surprisingly enough, it seems that and old MMO contender will be stepping up to the challenge. During this year’s E3, Square-Enix announced that their fourteenth installment in the Final Fantasy series will be a multi-platform MMORPG. The potential for greatness here is exciting. Final Fantasy XI was released seven years ago in a pre-WoW world and though I’ve never been a fan of the game I do have to commend Square-Enix for their continued support of the title.

With FFXIV, the company has a brand new blank slate to put those years of experience to use. With WoW reaching an impressive age of its own, FFXIV may end up in a position to slay the titan once and for all.