iOS: Order & Chaos (iOS WoW Clone)

[adjunct]

Gameloft just released their 3D MMORPG Order & Chaos for $6.99. It's a universal app and comes with a 3 month subscription. Sub renewals are $0.99/month, $1.99 for 3 months, or $2.99 for 6 months.

The game is WiFi only.

touchArcade's early impressions.

The game does have in-app purchases. You can buy gold and runes. Runes can instantly rez instead of having to go back to a graveyard. They can also be used to boost experience and buy vanity pets.

[Hawkbit]

In-ap purchases are too easy to buy on most of these games.  Having a smart kid could get me into trouble.  Is there password confirmation on the in app RM purchases?  I'll buy it for sure if there is.

[Trippy]

Yes, in iOS 4.3 Apple removed the "15 minute no password required window" for in-app purchases -- i.e. you have to enter your password for all in-app purchases in 4.3.

[adjunct]

Maybe I'm dumb, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to turn off chat.

[Hutch]

Your link, I have fixed it.

[RUiN 427]

Maybe I'm dumb, but I can't for the life of me figure out how to turn off chat.

tap the arrow that shows the channels and then tap and hold a channel for 2 seconds to mute it

[RUiN 427]

Unfortunately for me, it's actually pretty good and fun.

Yes it's a wow clone, and a descent one at that. Think vanilla wow but with graphics turned all the way down and a quest tracker. Instead of just gushing about how much i like it, just assume I like everything about it except the following:

1. Only lets you play on wi-fi
2. camera zoom resets after death and zoning
3. Have to fast travel city by city rather than just clicking on your destination (think wow when you had to buy a new gryphon at each stop along a route)
4. escort quests can be crowded with people waiting their turn

Other than that the servers are damn stable. I just hope gameloft actually supports this thing past launch.

I'm on arcadian forest server. 24 Orc warrior named Vanberg

[Chinchilla]

I am also on Arcadia Forest server. StDrahcir is my char name. Level 8 Undead Mage. I'm liking it alot which surprises me.

I'm gonna experiment with the jailbreak that makes the iPhone think it's always connected to Wifi to see if that does the trick on the only Wifi restriction.

[Tale]

A step up from Pocket Legends?

[RUiN 427]

A step up from Pocket Legends?

absolutely... and i'm still a fan of pocket legends

[RUiN 427]

Content patch on the way...

http://toucharcade.com/2011/05/13/order-chaos-onlines-first-major-content-patch-on-the-way/

[Roentgen]

I've been playing this on Android.  Galaxy S Epic on Sprint.  Great game.  Expected mediocrity.  Very surprised at the quality and how fun it is.

[CmdrSlack]

I played this on my iPad 2 a bit. I probably won't pay for a subscription. If this is a WoW clone (I have never played WoW, and only watched Rhyssa play for like 30 seconds at GenCon 2005), then I'm rather glad that I avoided the 500 lb gorilla of gaming.

I guess the fantasy MMO genre has just failed to grab me since I quit LoTRO.

[damijin]

So, I haven't been to f13 in like... years, mostly due to being a poor indie dev and then somehow winding up being a salaried game designer at Gameloft.

Which then of course brings me to this thread. I'm really interested in getting Gameloft to pursue mobile phone MMO releases in a much stronger way (though at the moment am working on something SUPER unrelated.)

We also launched it on facebook as an app in Unity -- but the servers aren't connected to the iOS or Android ones. (http://apps.facebook.com/orderandchaos/)

So: Mobile MMOs, good idea? Dumb idea?

[UnSub]

So: Mobile MMOs, good idea? Dumb idea?

The first company to pull it off will require money bins to throw away all those pathetic $100 notes that keep cluttering up their offices.

[damijin]

But we already did it... and there's no bins of money near my desk :(

Or did you mean -- the first ones to pull off something with WoW-like success, to which I would like to ask, "How can I do that, as I am a big fan of money."

TIPS?  

Edit:

To make these posts more meaningful... Let me start by saying that I work entirely too much on the one game project I am doing in the office. On top of that, I do side projects at home. This has left me with very little time to contemplate some key questions:

"What would need to be different in a phone MMO to make it work? How would socializing work in it? How connected would it be? What would play sessions be like? Can you join a party and kill shit while on your morning subway commute and effortlessly jump in and out of the game whenever you have 5 minutes to kill?"

etc etc

I am sincerely hoping this thread can help me think about those issues, that is, if you guys don't mind theoretically helping me to try and get rich.  

[Nija]

Why does Gameloft hire developers? The companies you rip off have already completed the design for you!

Are you sure you aren't an artist or programmer? Hell, most of the art is done for you as well. Lots of win.

[Hawkbit]

That's kinda shitty to attack the guy, he's just asking.  Everyone gets their start somewhere. 

FWIW - I'd pose this question in the Game Design forum - the conversation has a better chance of blooming there.  Flesh out the idea a bit and pose it as more of a conceptual question.

IMO, if I'm going to sit at my phone for 30 minutes to play an MMO, I may as well just sit at my PC for 30 minutes.  In order for the whole thing to work, it needs to be something I can hop in and out of real quick.  Sadly, with the way grouping is handled in most MMOs, that is about the time it takes to get people on the same page. 

So your problem is twofold:  You need something that requires no communication and no commitment. 

I think Shadow Cities is really close to making an "mmo" that can be played that way, but their implementation is wonky.  They have 50% of an awesome idea that just needs to be fleshed out and made so the player can progress without feeling like they're dumping money into it from the start. 

[Trippy]

FWIW - I'd pose this question in the Game Design forum - the conversation has a better chance of blooming there.  Flesh out the idea a bit and pose it as more of a conceptual question.

Yes.

[damijin]

Nah, those were kind of late night drunk flamebait posts anyway.

"I have a real job now let's go brag about it on the Internet! Durrrrr."

I wont be working on any MMOs in the near future, but maybe I'll start that thread anyway.

In any case, the company is actually pretty dope. Hate on clones all you want, but putting MMO content on a cell phone is some crazy fututre stuff that blows my mind. What would you have said if someone told you that you could do a 3d diku on your phone a few years ago?

[Tale]

But we already did it... and there's no bins of money near my desk :(

Or did you mean -- the first ones to pull off something with WoW-like success, to which I would like to ask, "How can I do that, as I am a big fan of money."

TIPS?  

Somebody needs to pull off mobile EverQuest first, so that talented former players can rip it off as a slick commercial product.

And to pull off EverQuest, you need to ignore everyone else and just do what you think will work. And no matter how much the community says "you're wrong", keep doing what you think is best, because you're the designers. Until everyone blames you for the bad decisions that happened after you left (when they started listening to the community) and claims you were only successful because there was no-one else.

So my tip is don't ask us. Go and make what you would like to play. We'll love it, but we'll never admit that in the long run.

[apocrypha]

Aren't Gameloft the company that were accused of making their employees work 100+ hour weeks? How do you have time to post on forums?! 

[RUiN 427]

Playing this on an iPad spoiled the iPhone version for me. The larger screen is ideal.

[Valmorian]

Just got this, and I found out after purchasing it on my Android that the servers for iOS devices are different than the Android device ones.  If you want a tip to help this game along, don't do that.  Segmenting your user base by servers may be necessary, but then further segmenting it by OS is just silly.

Also, there's virtually no advertising for this game.  I had no idea it was as good as it is until I tried it..

[Tale]

This is reduced to 99 cents today on all platforms.

[Rendakor]

Just got this, and I found out after purchasing it on my Android that the servers for iOS devices are different than the Android device ones.  If you want a tip to help this game along, don't do that.  Segmenting your user base by servers may be necessary, but then further segmenting it by OS is just silly.

Also, there's virtually no advertising for this game.  I had no idea it was as good as it is until I tried it..

In other news, I bought a game for the PS3 and couldn't play with my friends on Xbox. SHOCKING!

[MahrinSkel]

If I had to guess, I'd say that Apple didn't want iPhone users sharing a world with Android users.

--Dave

[RUiN 427]

If I had to guess, I'd say that Apple didn't want iPhone users sharing a world with Android users.

--Dave

There are plenty of cross platform mobile games and even MMO's. Pocket Legends and Star Legends come to mind. Most likely it's just gameloft being weird-ass gameloft.

[Hawkbit]

I never got around to playing this, it just seems silly to try to fit another game on my plate right now.  But from this article:  http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/6524/gamelofts_quest_to_be_the_mobile_.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GamasutraFeatureArticles+%28Gamasutra+Feature+Articles%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

So you have had, to an extent, some games that are a little bit more hardcore -- your MMO, Order & Chaos, is a really interesting title to talk about.

GDV: It's true that our DNA -- many of our guys on our creative teams are coming from the video game industry, so our DNA is more gamer type of games, but they're still designed to be accessible to a wider audience.

Order & Chaos is maybe our most hardcore type of title, and it's a pretty innovative one on the smartphone and tablet platforms. And yes, it has been doing really well, and it's still doing really well for us, and we have a strong community. And we are updating it -- updating the game every month or so, to bring new environments, new features.

Were you surprised by the success of that title?

GDV: Particularly surprised, yes, because it's a game genre that is generally pretty niche, and for big fans that want a very thorough experience, very deep experience on a big screen, and everything, and we were happily surprised. I think the game is very well done, so I wouldn't say that we did a sub-MMORPG, but we were happily surprised by the how warmly welcomed the title was.

And it's also successful from a business perspective?

GDV: Yeah, it's interesting, from a business perspective. If you compare to, say, World of Warcraft, which is the very big brother and the big leader in the field, what we are bringing in terms of business is very, very small. But in the smartphone gaming ecosystem, it's a good success. The game has been ranked in the top -- early days, in the top 10 -- but now it's stabilizing around the top 40 on the App Store in the U.S. It's doing well, also, on the Android marketplace. In other markets it's even ranked higher, so yeah. It's a strong success.

Is that in the revenue ranking?

GDV: Yeah, the revenue ranking -- the top grossing.

[Mrbloodworth]

So, I haven't been to f13 in like... years, mostly due to being a poor indie dev and then somehow winding up being a salaried game designer at Gameloft.

Which then of course brings me to this thread. I'm really interested in getting Gameloft to pursue mobile phone MMO releases in a much stronger way (though at the moment am working on something SUPER unrelated.)

We also launched it on facebook as an app in Unity -- but the servers aren't connected to the iOS or Android ones. (http://apps.facebook.com/orderandchaos/)

So: Mobile MMOs, good idea? Dumb idea?

I had wondered where you disappeared to.

[damijin]

So, I haven't been to f13 in like... years, mostly due to being a poor indie dev and then somehow winding up being a salaried game designer at Gameloft.

I had wondered where you disappeared to.

Complete dumb luck, really. I had myself on LinkedIn as a "game designer", which is technically true, but all of my released games have been 2 month flash projects. But I live near NYC, so... they took me in! Which is good. I was out of money and living on my fiance's parent's living room floor, which was relatively sad.

However, since my stroke of luck, I have been working exceptionally hard to learn how to actually design games and hopefully work on something multiplayer or online because I never had the infrastructure necessary to pull that off as an indie.

Until then, I have health insurance. Sweet actually functioning health insurance.