Just want to put in a small plug for Planetside 2. It’s (the world’s only?) MMO shooter game; the map is big enough that you can easily wander around for hours in friendly territory and never see an enemy, or you can go to one of many battles on the ever-shifting front lines. Think of it like Minecraft, except 1. it’s free, 2. it comes with proximity chat, and 3. it has a war/shooter/sci-fi flavor to it instead of cute blocky wilderness. You can even build structures in it, though that might require either spending a lot of time gaining xp or spending money.
I still think Minecraft would be better for most friend groups (because flavor) but for some planetside 2 would be better.
Planetside 2 is fascinating to me. It’s one of a kind, not just in the sense of being a MMO shooter, but also giving the player a sense of being part of something big and magnificent, collaborating with not only your small circle of friends, but also with hundreds of other people towards a common goal. This sort of exciting experience is only found in real world projects otherwise (EVE online and browser games notwithstanding; those are more spreadsheets than games to me), and I’m really starting to think this is a hugely neglected opportunity for the gaming industry. Who knows, maybe it will be the next big trend after Battle Royale? Although shooter games with their chaotic and computationally expensive nature is not the best fit for it—perhaps turn-based strategy games instead?
I share your fascination with it. I’ve long since decided that my tastes in video games are not representative, alas—if they are, then there are hundreds of million-dollar bills lying around on the game industry floor. I used to passionately write up lists of ideas for how to modify existing games (or make new ones) that would be SO AWESOME. I’d even have sub-lists of ideas that could be implemented in, like, a day. Now I usually don’t bother.
(That said, sometimes my ideas do get implemented, and players do like it, so… (In PS2 in particular, I had been hoping for sky carriers, alerts, and construction before they happened. One thing I’d been hoping for that hasn’t happened, alas, is two-way battles. Like what they did with Server Smash, only more regular and official. Well, I guess when they did Server Smash that was another instance of my wishes being fulfilled.)
Yeah, I think that was one of the ones I saw that I considered, I felt somewhat averse to it because the flavor (AFAICT) didn’t at all feel like “friends hanging out”. But I agree it may be an interesting and good choice for people that like the flavor.
I think Rust was another option, which is actually particularly Minecraft-like, but which I also haven’t played. When I looked into it the last thing I heard was that it was laggy on Mac.
The fact that, um, players start literally naked may be a dealbreaker for some, although maybe fine for, um, certain types of parties?
Just want to put in a small plug for Planetside 2. It’s (the world’s only?) MMO shooter game; the map is big enough that you can easily wander around for hours in friendly territory and never see an enemy, or you can go to one of many battles on the ever-shifting front lines. Think of it like Minecraft, except 1. it’s free, 2. it comes with proximity chat, and 3. it has a war/shooter/sci-fi flavor to it instead of cute blocky wilderness. You can even build structures in it, though that might require either spending a lot of time gaining xp or spending money.
I still think Minecraft would be better for most friend groups (because flavor) but for some planetside 2 would be better.
Planetside 2 is fascinating to me. It’s one of a kind, not just in the sense of being a MMO shooter, but also giving the player a sense of being part of something big and magnificent, collaborating with not only your small circle of friends, but also with hundreds of other people towards a common goal. This sort of exciting experience is only found in real world projects otherwise (EVE online and browser games notwithstanding; those are more spreadsheets than games to me), and I’m really starting to think this is a hugely neglected opportunity for the gaming industry. Who knows, maybe it will be the next big trend after Battle Royale? Although shooter games with their chaotic and computationally expensive nature is not the best fit for it—perhaps turn-based strategy games instead?
I share your fascination with it. I’ve long since decided that my tastes in video games are not representative, alas—if they are, then there are hundreds of million-dollar bills lying around on the game industry floor. I used to passionately write up lists of ideas for how to modify existing games (or make new ones) that would be SO AWESOME. I’d even have sub-lists of ideas that could be implemented in, like, a day. Now I usually don’t bother.
(That said, sometimes my ideas do get implemented, and players do like it, so… (In PS2 in particular, I had been hoping for sky carriers, alerts, and construction before they happened. One thing I’d been hoping for that hasn’t happened, alas, is two-way battles. Like what they did with Server Smash, only more regular and official. Well, I guess when they did Server Smash that was another instance of my wishes being fulfilled.)
Yeah, I think that was one of the ones I saw that I considered, I felt somewhat averse to it because the flavor (AFAICT) didn’t at all feel like “friends hanging out”. But I agree it may be an interesting and good choice for people that like the flavor.
I think Rust was another option, which is actually particularly Minecraft-like, but which I also haven’t played. When I looked into it the last thing I heard was that it was laggy on Mac.
The fact that, um, players start literally naked may be a dealbreaker for some, although maybe fine for, um, certain types of parties?