01-31-2006, 05:39 AM
Thecla,Jan 31 2006, 01:14 AM Wrote:They've made it very clear that Hellgate will be integrated for multiplayer games (along the Guild Wars lines, I guess), and I'm sure it will be done well (unlike Dungeon Siege I, for example ;) ). Does that make Hellgate a new type of online game though? I don't think so --- even if DI wasn't the first online game, and the multiplayer parts were tacked on almost as an afterthought, it's multiplayer aspects were truly inno vative. DII added some server-side security, which had its own costs, but apart from that didn't really change things. Guild Wars simply replaced theb.net "chat-lobbies" by in-game towns. I don't think Hellgate will be much different from that, though I could be wrong.
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I can't really disagree with anything you've said, but I submit that a FPS/RPG hybrid with battle.net style online gaming in a persistant world could be classified as innovative.
Let's be honest though. Nothing Blizzard ever did was purely innovative. They were great at resurrecting dead genres and polishing them for the masses. Dungeon crawlers existed before Diablo. RTS existed before Warcraft and Starcraft. In my opinion, the thing that elevated those franchises above all others was the polish and the ease of multiplayer. Blizzard brought those franchises to gamers in such an easy way it was hard to ignore.
I don't pretend to say that Hellgate will be "blow your socks off!" innovative, but if Flagship can produce a quality FPS/RPG with awesome multiplayer capabilities I'd say they would have done what lots of game companies haven't even attempted.
So far I like what I see with Hellgate, but ultimately it will be the multiplayer model that will make or break it.