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What is the most complete MMO for Smartphones?
Elemento
Member Posts: 62
I recognize that there are few smartphone mmo's that at this stage could have the impact that a full-featured PC mmo could have, however I'm wondering what games are close to that for smartphones?
I've heard a few decent things about Pocket Legends and Order and Chaos Online. Is there anyone with first-hand experience with other smartphone MMO's? Do either of the aforementioned have any kind of staying power?
Comments
Vendetta Online, hands down; it is the first true PC MMORPG to make it as a mobile port1
You can even play a character on mobile, switch over to PC and pick up right where you left off. I play the same character on Android when I have a few minutes or during lunch break, then at home on my laptop.
Some further reading on VO:
http://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/02/15/vendetta-online-ipad-preview/
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/18/vendetta-online-space-sim-kickstarts-ipad-app-to-become-the-most-multiplatform-mmo-game-ever/
edit: the multiplatform aspect isn't the only thing that gives it staying power, imo. VO also features a full sandbox world where players on all platforms interact. There are no instances, there is freedom to build your character in any direction you choose, a dynamic economy based on the laws of supply and demand complete with manufactured items, mining for rare ore, dynamic skirmishes with territory control etc. etc.
You won't find a better MMO experience on mobile.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
I've tried a few and pretty much have stuck with Order and Chaos. To keep it simple its 'WoW on a smartphone' in look, feel and gameplay. Story is thin but enough to push you on. Recently went F2P (used to have a 99 cent sub fee). Heard you have to dump money in (by buying gold) as end level but I'm only level 11. The environments are varied, you can swim, go underwater. Decent loot and even has dungeons (which I have not experienced).
Only downside I have is I can't play this over 4G. I used to be able to and when I investigated it came down to T-Mobile causing port issues. Heard it works fine over 4G on iphone and other android carriers. YMMV
There is also Earth and Legend - more realistic 3D game. Actually looked nice (have not played) but looked sparse in terms of content and stuff to do. But more 'realistic' than the stylized Order and Choas.
You also have the 'legends' games:
Pocket Legends (fantasy - havent played but think its more like a battle arena or lobby-based)
Star Legend (sci-fi - never played/looked into)
Dark Legends (latest one - vampires - never played/looked into)
I'm trying to post on this without sounding like an ass but you must be asking this because it appear's your planning on playing this game from your Smartphone most of the time.
Trying to take all the things that make an MMO great / different / complex / deep and inspiring and somehow still playable on a Smartphone pretty much means on of two things to me.
One, what your looking for is not really an MMO, you can call it what you want but what your looking for is really just a multiplayer mobile app game not an "MMO" in the traditional sense. Some sort of "social" game experience that you can play on your phone.
Two, if developers who have already gutted what makes MMO's great trying to appease the accessibility crowd are to now start striping and simplifying the UI down so their game runs on a phone, pretty much means bad news for those with 24 inch monitors keyboards, mice and custom gaming peripherals. In other words a continued reduction in video options / features making my experience..........boring as hell but still changllenging to you as you struggle on your tiny screen and microscopic buttons.
To bottom line it you’re not MMO material if you want to play them on your Smartphone, your just a pocket gamer that doesn’t want to be left out. In other words your "entitlement" is showing from under your skirt.
I'm trying to post on this without sounding like an ass but, [Insert extremely douchey comment here.]
Either a fail troll or someone with less sense than a broken pocket calculator and a computer worth more than them. MMOs can be as deep on a mobile platform as on a desktop or laptop, the issue is dealing with the control scheme such that it is intuitive enough to get a hang of from the get go with the limited screen space offered (one way they could bypass this is route functions into the accelereometer, the volume buttons, etc and go for a "click" control scheme which would be just as easy to pull off on a telephone as it is on a desktop, the problem is developers can't seem to figure it out).
Your post was fine :-)
Order and Choas is an MMO as much as it can be on a smartphone. You have gear grind. You have crafting. You have dungeons. You have a large world to traverse. You have mounts. You have quests. You have loot. I'm not sure how much more you want to squeeze on a cell phone but Order and Choas is an MMO. Perhaps if you add more detail of what you consider to make an MMO 'great/complex/deep'
Second I think it would be beneficial to your argument and perspective if you actually tried the games first. You may have (would be interested in what title and your experience) but your response comes off as if you have not. The UI has your inventory. Character sheet with gear and stats. Quest log. chat window. Again, not sure what else you think you need for a game to be an MMO.
What you don't seem to understand is that developers are not 'stripping' down MMOs to fit on a smartphone. They are developing MMOs *specifically* for smartphones. My cell phone can display full HD and Order and Chaos looks just fine. Its detailed and as a full range of color.
Sounds more like YOU are not interested in playing MMOs on your cell phone which is 100% fine. But thats not what the OP was asking and your response didnt add any substance (mainly due to lack of detail of what you claim).
And for your information I play full fledged MMOs on my PC and I play on my smartphone. I will take it a step further and say it would be a good idea if you had MMOs that were cross platform (albeit a different experience on the mobile device but one that is related).
The truth hurts.
It does. But your comments were far from.
Observe snap isn't even touching my post ^^ but I do agree with him, the truth hurts, shame that the only one that should feel that hurt is himself.
Also you could answer the question differently by saying that by playing an MMO that has some features enable on a mobile device could count as well. Something relating to managing resources, a mini game, crafting, buying and selling in an MMO but also on a mobile device.
There is also the option depending on the MMO and mobile device you could acces certain parts of the world that are not very resource dependent. The problem is if entering that instance has any use. Which is similar to the previous idea but without dev support.
Last other possibility is something like nvidia shield but on a larger scale. A person could set up their pc to run an MMO, and then use a program to stream the data to a mobile device. It would work since the mobile device is also sending input to the main pc. This has dangers and concequences of it's own... But it's another option.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
Since you cannot play WOW on a phone, Order and Chaos is the best, closest thing to WOW you can play on the go.
Don't say there is no value in WOW clones.
snapfusion, as you seem to be an expert on the topic, you may find the following AMA interesting:
http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/18e7ek/im_john_bergman_creative_director_of_the_indie/
I can tell you there are times when I actually would rather play on mobile. Sometimes I swear I'm even better on mobile, believe it or not.
There are also things like the MOGA controller which can improve precision.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
There are two real barriers to MMOs on phones: input capabilities (e.g., you don't have a keyboard and mouse) and hardware capabilities. The former means that you can't assume that the player has quick access to 40 different skills or make very precise movements, so the game does have to be simplified to some degree in that manner. But many MMOs that were built for desktops chose not to require one or both of those things, either, so it hardly rules out making an MMORPG at all.
For hardware capabilities, think of a state of the art smartphone as being roughly equivalent to a ten-year-old desktop. Obviously, that greatly limits what you can do on the graphical side of things. But it doesn't mean that you can't do anything at all; there were plenty of games, including some real MMORPGs, ten years ago. Don't expect the graphics to look amazing, however.
Insufficiently powerful hardware really doesn't restrict a game's feature set much, at least as far as game mechanics goes. You could make a world that is heavily instanced or a seamless open world. You could use trinity combat or not. You could have massive amounts of grinding or let players hit max level very quickly. Any game mechanics that you could do on a desktop ten years ago, you could probably do just as well on a smartphone today, apart from things that need particular input methods.
This year will bring tablets with hardware capabilities that are actually decent. They'll support all of the latest graphical APIs, and have a performance level sufficient to have games with most of the graphical features you'd hope for in a modern PC game, apart from some fairly demanding lighting effects such as shadows or any sort of ambient occlusion. And I don't just mean the Razer Edge Pro, either; we'll probably see such tablets with decent gaming capabilities selling for around $600 or so. Smartphones are a long way away from getting that sort of performance, though.