Which MMOs are Kid-Safe? A Parents Guide to Massively Multiplayer Games
There is no shortage of Massively Multiplayer Online games for adults, with titles like Age of Conan, World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online, and City of Heroes. While its great that adults have a nice selection of options for their gaming dollar, what about children? Most adults would rather not have their kids playing Age of Conan, which depicts half-naked women and copious amounts of beheadings and severed limbs.
Graphic depictions of violence are only one aspect of MMOs that may concern parents, while others may be far more worried about language and predatory adults with too much time on their hands. What you will find below is a list of current MMOs that are kid-friendly. In all cases, these games were built for kids and will offer as safe a gaming environment as you can hope to have on the Internet. Nothing is perfect and no system is fool-proof, so active parental monitoring is always a good thing. Games appear in order of popularity.
The most popular MMO with kids is Poptropica. Best of all, its free, though you can buy your child credits for the purchasing of special items. Kids can create their own character, known as a Poptropican, and travel across islands. Players will use problem-solving skills as they uncover various mysteries, explore new areas, acquire digital comic books, watch movies and even compete in head-to-head competitions with other kids.
For kids between the ages of 6-13+, Webkinz is a commercial venture that ties into an existing toy-line, so know going in that you’re dealing with a gateway drug, i.e., play the game and find your kid asking for a real-life Webkinz toy. Commercialism aside, kids really enjoy Webkinz, a virtual world where they can adopt and care for pets, take part in fun activities and even decorate their own home.
RuneScape has been around for what seems like forever, boasting a mammoth player base and huge game world for kids to explore. RuneScape is more like a traditional MMO, presented from a top-down perspective. While kids under 9 may be in over their heads, older kids will find Runescape to be a great bridge to more difficult games like World of Warcraft. RuneScape is highly addictive and has a sizable adult player base. Fortunately, you can have the chat feature of RuneScape disabled until you child turns 13 years of age.
Club Penguin is published by Disney, so you know you’re in good hands right from the start. Kids will find a wide-range of activities in Club Penguin and parents can set chat limitation and amount of play time per day, ensuring your kid gets the old homework done.
Which MMOs are Kid-Safe? A Parents Guide to Massively Multiplayer Games
There is no shortage of Massively Multiplayer Online games for adults, with titles like Age of Conan, World of Warcraft, Star Trek Online, and City of Heroes. While its great that adults have a nice selection of options for their gaming dollar, what about children? Most adults would rather not have their kids playing Age of Conan, which depicts half-naked women and copious amounts of beheadings and severed limbs.
Graphic depictions of violence are only one aspect of MMOs that may concern parents, while others may be far more worried about language and predatory adults with too much time on their hands. What you will find below is a list of current MMOs that are kid-friendly. In all cases, these games were built for kids and will offer as safe a gaming environment as you can hope to have on the Internet. Nothing is perfect and no system is fool-proof, so active parental monitoring is always a good thing. Games appear in order of popularity.
The most popular MMO with kids is Poptropica. Best of all, its free, though you can buy your child credits for the purchasing of special items. Kids can create their own character, known as a Poptropican, and travel across islands. Players will use problem-solving skills as they uncover various mysteries, explore new areas, acquire digital comic books, watch movies and even compete in head-to-head competitions with other kids.
For kids between the ages of 6-13+, Webkinz is a commercial venture that ties into an existing toy-line, so know going in that you’re dealing with a gateway drug, i.e., play the game and find your kid asking for a real-life Webkinz toy. Commercialism aside, kids really enjoy Webkinz, a virtual world where they can adopt and care for pets, take part in fun activities and even decorate their own home.
RuneScape has been around for what seems like forever, boasting a mammoth player base and huge game world for kids to explore. RuneScape is more like a traditional MMO, presented from a top-down perspective. While kids under 9 may be in over their heads, older kids will find Runescape to be a great bridge to more difficult games like World of Warcraft. RuneScape is highly addictive and has a sizable adult player base. Fortunately, you can have the chat feature of RuneScape disabled until you child turns 13 years of age.
Club Penguin is published by Disney, so you know you’re in good hands right from the start. Kids will find a wide-range of activities in Club Penguin and parents can set chat limitation and amount of play time per day, ensuring your kid gets the old homework done.
Cryptic Makes Next Champions Online Expansion Free to Appease Angry Subscribers
Things aren’t going well for Champions Online, Cryptic’s half-baked MMO that I tried to warn you about before the game even released. In an attempt to appease angry subscribers, Cryptic has decided to make the next planned expansion, Vibora Bay (now called Revelation), available for free. I guess Cryptic saw the light and thought it may not be in their best interests to rip-off the same people they screw on a daily basis, especially those poor bastards who purchased lifetime subscriptions.
Revelation will be available on March 10, 2010.
Cryptic State of the Game, Wherein They Act Humble and Apologetic:
We have a lot going on right now both at Cryptic, and with Champions Online in particular. There are huge changes afoot, and rather than spend a lot of time with the preamble, let’s sink our collective teeth into the meat of the matter.
Scrubbing the Kitchen Sink
As we all know, the Kitchen Sink patch had numerous issues that made it onto Live. The reasons for this boil down to two key areas:
Things That Used to Work Stopped Working:
Basically, there were changes to the core code that automatically merged with our older code and we didn’t see all of the effects of these before they went Live. Token changes, for example, caused a lot of things to stop working properly in Champions. We use tokens for a lot of things in Champions and when the token system was recently optimized, it caused any token-based missions to stop working properly – namely UNITY and Patrol missions. There was also the AI fixes which were made which affected the attack rates of every enemy in the game that slipped past us all.
Lack of Comprehensive Testing
There were only a few players on during the time the Kitchen Sink Patch was on the Public Test Shard, and we simply didn’t allocate enough QA testers. There were so many issues we were anxious to address, that our desire to get fixes out to the players as soon as possible completely backfired. There are truly an astonishing amount of changes in this patch, and we simply should have spent more time testing them before pushing the build Live.
Moving forward, our updates will spend more time in internal test before going to the Public Test Shard. We’ve already increased the size of our Champions QA group, and the designers have been playing much more on the internal servers. We are also much more aware of the changes coming into the core game engine through other projects and have taken steps to increase communication internally to avoid being surprised by those changes.
Currently, we’re putting new builds up on the Public Test Shard, addressing the current reported issues with the Kitchen Sink patch. If you’d like to help us make sure we’re getting it all, play on the PTS and provide us your feedback in this thread.
Improving Communications
We’ve had a real failure with communicating to our community over the past couple of months. You’ve been vocal about it, and we hear you. In fact, we’ve taken some pretty big steps to fixing this, and I wanted to share our goals with you to address this. There are a lot of things we used to do that fell by the wayside, and now that we have StormShade back on the team full-time, we’re going to be bringing back a lot of the things you have always told us you look forward to seeing and hearing:
Ask Cryptic
Bi-weekly posting by the developers answering your questions as compiled by StormShade.
GM Blog
A general support-oriented Blog where our Game Masters discuss what’s being done to address your concerns, talk about bug status, and so on.
Developer Chat
A monthly live IRC chat with developers from the Champions Online team.
State of the Game
Bi-weekly posting by me (Chronomancer) to provide insight into the high-level vision for the Champions Online universe and address hot-button issues.
Game with Cryptic
We’re putting together a new all-company supergroup so you can find us in the game and share adventures. We’re also going to do more PVP events so you can pit your skills in The Hero Games against the devs!
Cryptic Makes Next Champions Online Expansion Free to Appease Angry Subscribers
Things aren’t going well for Champions Online, Cryptic’s half-baked MMO that I tried to warn you about before the game even released. In an attempt to appease angry subscribers, Cryptic has decided to make the next planned expansion, Vibora Bay (now called Revelation), available for free. I guess Cryptic saw the light and thought it may not be in their best interests to rip-off the same people they screw on a daily basis, especially those poor bastards who purchased lifetime subscriptions.
Revelation will be available on March 10, 2010.
Cryptic State of the Game, Wherein They Act Humble and Apologetic:
We have a lot going on right now both at Cryptic, and with Champions Online in particular. There are huge changes afoot, and rather than spend a lot of time with the preamble, let’s sink our collective teeth into the meat of the matter.
Scrubbing the Kitchen Sink
As we all know, the Kitchen Sink patch had numerous issues that made it onto Live. The reasons for this boil down to two key areas:
Things That Used to Work Stopped Working:
Basically, there were changes to the core code that automatically merged with our older code and we didn’t see all of the effects of these before they went Live. Token changes, for example, caused a lot of things to stop working properly in Champions. We use tokens for a lot of things in Champions and when the token system was recently optimized, it caused any token-based missions to stop working properly – namely UNITY and Patrol missions. There was also the AI fixes which were made which affected the attack rates of every enemy in the game that slipped past us all.
Lack of Comprehensive Testing
There were only a few players on during the time the Kitchen Sink Patch was on the Public Test Shard, and we simply didn’t allocate enough QA testers. There were so many issues we were anxious to address, that our desire to get fixes out to the players as soon as possible completely backfired. There are truly an astonishing amount of changes in this patch, and we simply should have spent more time testing them before pushing the build Live.
Moving forward, our updates will spend more time in internal test before going to the Public Test Shard. We’ve already increased the size of our Champions QA group, and the designers have been playing much more on the internal servers. We are also much more aware of the changes coming into the core game engine through other projects and have taken steps to increase communication internally to avoid being surprised by those changes.
Currently, we’re putting new builds up on the Public Test Shard, addressing the current reported issues with the Kitchen Sink patch. If you’d like to help us make sure we’re getting it all, play on the PTS and provide us your feedback in this thread.
Improving Communications
We’ve had a real failure with communicating to our community over the past couple of months. You’ve been vocal about it, and we hear you. In fact, we’ve taken some pretty big steps to fixing this, and I wanted to share our goals with you to address this. There are a lot of things we used to do that fell by the wayside, and now that we have StormShade back on the team full-time, we’re going to be bringing back a lot of the things you have always told us you look forward to seeing and hearing:
Ask Cryptic
Bi-weekly posting by the developers answering your questions as compiled by StormShade.
GM Blog
A general support-oriented Blog where our Game Masters discuss what’s being done to address your concerns, talk about bug status, and so on.
Developer Chat
A monthly live IRC chat with developers from the Champions Online team.
State of the Game
Bi-weekly posting by me (Chronomancer) to provide insight into the high-level vision for the Champions Online universe and address hot-button issues.
Game with Cryptic
We’re putting together a new all-company supergroup so you can find us in the game and share adventures. We’re also going to do more PVP events so you can pit your skills in The Hero Games against the devs!
The Top 10 Most Dangerous World PvP Areas of WoW
Going outside. It’s quite dangerous. Just ask a World of Warcraft player. Gang fights, turf disputes, trade swindling, imposing authorities, Mr. T. – and we’re not even talking about WoW yet.
So imagine what happens when you mix those things, rampant drug and alcohol usage, internet anonymity, a cross between GTA-style violence and Harry Potter-style witchery, 13-year-olds, and good old FPS teabagging. You get a rather dangerous place called a “PvP Realm.” Roughly translated for those who haven’t yet mastered WoW-speak, it means “open season on your ass.” But since Blizzard has yet to debut its patented in-game butt cup (available soon for only $10, limit one per account) to shield your character (aka toon) from unwanted posterior intrusions, you’ll have to settle with my $5 “Don’t-even-think-about-going-there” tour guide, provided to you free of charge.
So, without further adieu, I bring you, ranging from “hunting guide for Dick Cheney” to “sparring partner for Chuck Norris,” the top 10 most dangerous world PvP areas of WoW.
[A quick note to WoW players not yet accustomed to the sheer lunacy of PvP realms:
PvEers - pretend every zone not exclusively controlled by your faction is simply one of those magical places you call a "battleground," only with flight paths.
RPers - replace "you" with "thou," and "teabagging" with "a sampling of ye olde family jewels."]#10 – Karazhan
Above: A typical Tuesday night outside Karazhan in 2007.
The old level-70, 10-man raid instance from Burning Crusade may be responsible for many things – starting a new approach that made making raid instances more accessible, causing Blizzard to incorporate 10-man options for all of its raid content in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion – but it will always be known for giving us one startling revelation above all: meeting stones and ganking go together like hookers and the clap.
Sure, Karazhan may not be much of a hot spot anymore, what with the level cap being raised to 80 and all, but back before WoW’s second expansion launched you couldn’t hover around the instance’s meeting stone on a weekday night for more than 10 seconds (let alone during the weekend) without getting gang raped by numerous members of the opposing faction.
The fact that both Horde and Alliance had to summon their raid members face-to-face while some dickweed rogue decided to run his own Sap-a-thon would often cause an arms race that rivaled the Soviet/American nuclear weapons buildup during the Cold War. The first side to amass a full 10-man group – or simply a larger group during more pressing moments – instantly waged full-scale war on the other side.
Beer, weed, energy drinks and A.D.D. all combined with impatience over waiting on that last raid member who just wouldn’t seem to get out of Warsong Gulch no matter how many times you told him. And when more raid groups started showing up, it simply boiled down to who wanted it the most, and who simply wanted some Tier 4.
But assuming your raid somehow succeeded in neutralizing all nearby hostiles, you’d still end up waiting on that supposed second tank your resto druid said he found in trade chat over 30 minutes ago. Thankfully, you could always fall back on dueling your guildies while you waited.
Chances of teabagging: medium.
The Top 10 Most Dangerous World PvP Areas of WoW
Going outside. It’s quite dangerous. Just ask a World of Warcraft player. Gang fights, turf disputes, trade swindling, imposing authorities, Mr. T. – and we’re not even talking about WoW yet.
So imagine what happens when you mix those things, rampant drug and alcohol usage, internet anonymity, a cross between GTA-style violence and Harry Potter-style witchery, 13-year-olds, and good old FPS teabagging. You get a rather dangerous place called a “PvP Realm.” Roughly translated for those who haven’t yet mastered WoW-speak, it means “open season on your ass.” But since Blizzard has yet to debut its patented in-game butt cup (available soon for only $10, limit one per account) to shield your character (aka toon) from unwanted posterior intrusions, you’ll have to settle with my $5 “Don’t-even-think-about-going-there” tour guide, provided to you free of charge.
So, without further adieu, I bring you, ranging from “hunting guide for Dick Cheney” to “sparring partner for Chuck Norris,” the top 10 most dangerous world PvP areas of WoW.
[A quick note to WoW players not yet accustomed to the sheer lunacy of PvP realms:
PvEers - pretend every zone not exclusively controlled by your faction is simply one of those magical places you call a "battleground," only with flight paths.
RPers - replace "you" with "thou," and "teabagging" with "a sampling of ye olde family jewels."]#10 – Karazhan
Above: A typical Tuesday night outside Karazhan in 2007.
The old level-70, 10-man raid instance from Burning Crusade may be responsible for many things – starting a new approach that made making raid instances more accessible, causing Blizzard to incorporate 10-man options for all of its raid content in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion – but it will always be known for giving us one startling revelation above all: meeting stones and ganking go together like hookers and the clap.
Sure, Karazhan may not be much of a hot spot anymore, what with the level cap being raised to 80 and all, but back before WoW’s second expansion launched you couldn’t hover around the instance’s meeting stone on a weekday night for more than 10 seconds (let alone during the weekend) without getting gang raped by numerous members of the opposing faction.
The fact that both Horde and Alliance had to summon their raid members face-to-face while some dickweed rogue decided to run his own Sap-a-thon would often cause an arms race that rivaled the Soviet/American nuclear weapons buildup during the Cold War. The first side to amass a full 10-man group – or simply a larger group during more pressing moments – instantly waged full-scale war on the other side.
Beer, weed, energy drinks and A.D.D. all combined with impatience over waiting on that last raid member who just wouldn’t seem to get out of Warsong Gulch no matter how many times you told him. And when more raid groups started showing up, it simply boiled down to who wanted it the most, and who simply wanted some Tier 4.
But assuming your raid somehow succeeded in neutralizing all nearby hostiles, you’d still end up waiting on that supposed second tank your resto druid said he found in trade chat over 30 minutes ago. Thankfully, you could always fall back on dueling your guildies while you waited.
Chances of teabagging: medium.
The Scurge of MMO Account Hacking
As MMOs increase in popularity, an alarming number of people are having their accounts hacked on a daily basis. The problem has become so epidemic that its overall weight is dragging down respective customer support centers as they attempt to placate irate and confused customers. In some cases, it can take weeks to retrieve your character and if you’re lucky, you may get your items back.
Now, the vast majority of these problems could be avoided if gamers used their heads, but with the increased casual appeal of your typical MMO, we’re finding more players who simply don’t know better until it’s too late. It’s a hell of a way to learn. How are hackers getting account information? A variety of ways:
1. You get an email that looks like it’s from the Customer Service department of the MMO in question, asking you to update account information. You click the supplied link and are taken to a site that looks legit. Unfortunately, it isn’t…and you have just supplied all relevant account information to a hacker.
I get these emails on a daily basis. Here’s what one looks like (DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS!):
Blizzard Entertainment -> Legal -> Terms of Use
A 3-hour probationary suspension is pending on this account, awaiting confirmation from a specialist. A final warning has been issued. The investigation will be continued by the Account Administration team to determine the any further suspensions. If the account in question is found in violation of the EULA and Terms of Use, further action will be taken. Be aware that any additional inappropriate actions may result in the permanent closure of the account.
Thank you for respecting our position on this matter.
================================================
** We request that you verify your legitimate ownership of the account here:http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/login/login/
Blizzard staff will verify your account information submitted in two days, please do not modify your account information during this time . It will not affect your game uptime.1.) WHY DID THIS HAPPEN AND HOW CAN I STOP IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN?
which state that your Password is to be kept confidential at all times and you are solely responsible for the security of your Password. You may not disclose your Password to anyone, or allow your Password to be used by anyone other than yourself and/or your one (1) minor child. This includes, but is not limited to, compensated third parties accessing the account to advance characters in any way.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Password, and you will be responsible for all uses of your Password, whether or not authorized by you. Also, note that the security of the Account is your responsibility. Furthermore, Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize the transfer of Accounts, and any authorized transfer of the World of Warcraft software (as set forth on the worldofwarcraft.com website) will result in the permanent deletion of the Account attached to that software. You may not offer any Account for sale or trade, and any such offer is a violation of this Agreement and may result in suspension or termination of the Account.
To help ensure that no viruses are present that may threaten your account, please regularly scan all computer systems that you use to remove all viruses, including Trojan files, spy-ware and key loggers. You can find links to scanners in our article about computer and Internet security tips at http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msi0504p. Also be sure to change your account password regularly at
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account.
2.) I SENT MY SUBMISSION, NOW WHAT?
We will contact you again once your submission is received and processed. If you do not receive a reply within 48 hours of sending your submission, please resend it and notify us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/?id=eSupport000. If you send your submission by postal mail, please allow time for delivery. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and patience.
Only Account Administration is able to assist with account retrieval issues. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.com
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.
Sincerely,
AmandaWhen you receive an email with a link, hover your mouse over the link and analyze the URL that appears in your browser. Chances are extremely high the URL points to a shady site, a site that is named in such a way that it fools you into thinking it’s legitimate.
The Scurge of MMO Account Hacking
As MMOs increase in popularity, an alarming number of people are having their accounts hacked on a daily basis. The problem has become so epidemic that its overall weight is dragging down respective customer support centers as they attempt to placate irate and confused customers. In some cases, it can take weeks to retrieve your character and if you’re lucky, you may get your items back.
Now, the vast majority of these problems could be avoided if gamers used their heads, but with the increased casual appeal of your typical MMO, we’re finding more players who simply don’t know better until it’s too late. It’s a hell of a way to learn. How are hackers getting account information? A variety of ways:
1. You get an email that looks like it’s from the Customer Service department of the MMO in question, asking you to update account information. You click the supplied link and are taken to a site that looks legit. Unfortunately, it isn’t…and you have just supplied all relevant account information to a hacker.
I get these emails on a daily basis. Here’s what one looks like (DO NOT CLICK THE LINKS!):
Blizzard Entertainment -> Legal -> Terms of Use
A 3-hour probationary suspension is pending on this account, awaiting confirmation from a specialist. A final warning has been issued. The investigation will be continued by the Account Administration team to determine the any further suspensions. If the account in question is found in violation of the EULA and Terms of Use, further action will be taken. Be aware that any additional inappropriate actions may result in the permanent closure of the account.
Thank you for respecting our position on this matter.
================================================
** We request that you verify your legitimate ownership of the account here:http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/login/login/
Blizzard staff will verify your account information submitted in two days, please do not modify your account information during this time . It will not affect your game uptime.1.) WHY DID THIS HAPPEN AND HOW CAN I STOP IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN?
which state that your Password is to be kept confidential at all times and you are solely responsible for the security of your Password. You may not disclose your Password to anyone, or allow your Password to be used by anyone other than yourself and/or your one (1) minor child. This includes, but is not limited to, compensated third parties accessing the account to advance characters in any way.
You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your Password, and you will be responsible for all uses of your Password, whether or not authorized by you. Also, note that the security of the Account is your responsibility. Furthermore, Blizzard Entertainment does not recognize the transfer of Accounts, and any authorized transfer of the World of Warcraft software (as set forth on the worldofwarcraft.com website) will result in the permanent deletion of the Account attached to that software. You may not offer any Account for sale or trade, and any such offer is a violation of this Agreement and may result in suspension or termination of the Account.
To help ensure that no viruses are present that may threaten your account, please regularly scan all computer systems that you use to remove all viruses, including Trojan files, spy-ware and key loggers. You can find links to scanners in our article about computer and Internet security tips at http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msi0504p. Also be sure to change your account password regularly at
https://www.worldofwarcraft.com/account.
2.) I SENT MY SUBMISSION, NOW WHAT?
We will contact you again once your submission is received and processed. If you do not receive a reply within 48 hours of sending your submission, please resend it and notify us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/?id=eSupport000. If you send your submission by postal mail, please allow time for delivery. Thank you in advance for your cooperation and patience.
Only Account Administration is able to assist with account retrieval issues. To learn more about how Account Administration is able to assist you, please visit us at http://www.blizzard.com/support/wowaa/.com
Thank you for your time and attention to this matter, and your continued interest in World of Warcraft.
Sincerely,
AmandaWhen you receive an email with a link, hover your mouse over the link and analyze the URL that appears in your browser. Chances are extremely high the URL points to a shady site, a site that is named in such a way that it fools you into thinking it’s legitimate.
The Current State of Star Wars Video Games
A long time ago, in a world of video games far, far away, Star Wars games were awesome. Whether LucasArts was was producing excellent space combat sims like X-Wing and its sequel or solid first-person shooters like Dark Forces, LucasArts could apparently do no wrong.
Then…everything sucked.
Some of this can be attributed to LucasArts farming out games to 3rd-party developers. Some of this is a total lack of quality control (remember Rebellion? Ooopha). Some if it can be related to a lack of focus and mismanagement. However you want to slice it, Star Wars games are a ghost of their former glory.
Is there hope for the future? Well, Bioware making an MMO is a great first step as Bioware is one of the few 3rd-party developers to “get” Star Wars.
For further illumination on the issues involved in developing a Stars Wars games, Developer magazine visited LucasArts and spoke with the people in charge.
“Rather than being timid in anyway, very early on we really shot for the moon and then let those in charge tell us what we can’t do,” says producer Cameron Suey, who is part of the group expanding The Force Unleashed with new DLC and a special Sith Edition release.
“We went for everything we could think of and said ‘pull us back’, which I think was a huge advantage for the development of The Force Unleashed, because thematically it was all about things gamers have never seen before. We actually started with pre-visualisation animations, and took that straight to licensing and to George and asked if we could go with what we had. It was actually surprising they said yes, because we really had gone big with Force Powers and such. However, we’d followed the concept of the big Force Powers shown in the original 2D Clone Wars TV series. What we were doing wasn’t completely unprecedented, and it was probably respect to other new elements of the canon that had helped us so much.”
It’s a process that the licensing department seems open to, and the spirit of daring to push what the Star Wars universe can play host to is by no means exclusive to the Force Unleashed team.
The Current State of Star Wars Video Games
A long time ago, in a world of video games far, far away, Star Wars games were awesome. Whether LucasArts was was producing excellent space combat sims like X-Wing and its sequel or solid first-person shooters like Dark Forces, LucasArts could apparently do no wrong.
Then…everything sucked.
Some of this can be attributed to LucasArts farming out games to 3rd-party developers. Some of this is a total lack of quality control (remember Rebellion? Ooopha). Some if it can be related to a lack of focus and mismanagement. However you want to slice it, Star Wars games are a ghost of their former glory.
Is there hope for the future? Well, Bioware making an MMO is a great first step as Bioware is one of the few 3rd-party developers to “get” Star Wars.
For further illumination on the issues involved in developing a Stars Wars games, Developer magazine visited LucasArts and spoke with the people in charge.
“Rather than being timid in anyway, very early on we really shot for the moon and then let those in charge tell us what we can’t do,” says producer Cameron Suey, who is part of the group expanding The Force Unleashed with new DLC and a special Sith Edition release.
“We went for everything we could think of and said ‘pull us back’, which I think was a huge advantage for the development of The Force Unleashed, because thematically it was all about things gamers have never seen before. We actually started with pre-visualisation animations, and took that straight to licensing and to George and asked if we could go with what we had. It was actually surprising they said yes, because we really had gone big with Force Powers and such. However, we’d followed the concept of the big Force Powers shown in the original 2D Clone Wars TV series. What we were doing wasn’t completely unprecedented, and it was probably respect to other new elements of the canon that had helped us so much.”
It’s a process that the licensing department seems open to, and the spirit of daring to push what the Star Wars universe can play host to is by no means exclusive to the Force Unleashed team.
