Pumping Irony

Ok, I’ll bite. All the Halo, etc. fanboy sites have been repeating the rumor mill that the December issue of EGM is saying Microsoft and Bungie are working on a Halo MMO. Everyone seems to like using the GamingTarget.com article as a reference, so I’ll do the same.

What we do know for a fact is that last month Microsoft started talking about the MMOFPS technology they’re working on, code-named DonnyBrook, over at Channel 10 last month.  Currently, DonnyBrook is in early development and is aimed at being used in upcoming FPS titles, and eventually a stand-alone kit will be released that will work for any FPS.

Now, does any of this actually imply that a Halo MMOFPS is in the making? Not really. The genre itself hasn’t proven itself yet, although Halo certainly has the name recognition to get more players — in the short term. But just as Brandon fears Tabula Rasa will crash and burn early, does an FPS have what it takes to make it as an MMO? There are literally tons of FPS titles that you can play for free. Battlefield 2 and 2142 introduced RPG-ish persistent soldiers and unlocking items even though you’re still on maps that end then cycle to the next, the world itself is not persistent. But when the gameplay consists of nothing but run and gun, die and respawn, even if you have more players than ever before in a single battle, is that alone enough to warrant paying the subscription? I suppose the flip side of that argument is that all the MMORPG’s we know and love are nothing more than whack-a-mole, die, resurrect, corpse run, repeat. Same thing, just happening at a snail’s pace compared to the twitchy shooter game play.

SOE’s PlanetSide is the only true MMOFPS on the market, and while I’ve heard some people say it was actually quite fun back in the day, it never took off and at this point only Station Access is providing life support. Huxley looks to be taking a more Guild Wars approach, having a “massively multiplayer” city masquerading as a matchmaking lobby while the battles themselves are instanced, which in most players eyes is not a true MMOFPS.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 25th, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under MMO Gaming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.