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Could Onlive be the future of MMOs?
dougmysticey
Member Posts: 1,176
If you don't know about the Onlive game service that launched 10 days ago, check it out at:
Or look it up at Youtube and check out some of the reviews and intros to this product. It is VERY cool and should change the face of PC and Console gaming.
Basically, you either download the small Onlive app to your PC or you get a mini-console for the TV. Like other online game providers you can purchase the game there but there is a significant difference. You never download the game, nor do you have to have a system that can support it. The entire game is played in the cloud (network) of Onlive servers. You don't need a fancy video card or sound card just a good internet connection.
I became a founding member and have tried it out. IT WORKS and I am totally amazed by the technology. There is also an arena where you can watch other players play the games in real time. There is absolutely no lag for me at all and it feels like I am playing the game on the highest settings on my PC.
Take a look at the technology and let your imagination run on how this can apply to MMO to stop latency and overpopulation of servers, etc.
I also saw a tech demo where they played Borderlands through Onlive on an IPAD with no problems at atll at E3. It is very cool. I would love to play AOC, or some of the awesome new upcoming MMOs like Rifts on an Ipad and have it look and play well.
Comments
Onlive is a cool idea. And I can see it surviving. I am not bashing it, but I don't see how it's gonna hold up against platforms.
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It's simply the evolution of Sega TV into things like Gametap and Steam, and now this.
I highly doubt MMOs will be part of it because the monthly sub of this service is not going to leave much room for both parties to get their share of the dues (both the developer/publisher side, nor the hosts of this service). It will work fine for single-purchase games if they sell it like steam, but with continual funding coming it through subscriptions, the line that is drawn gets iffy. Also, I would think most of the games they host don't have an owner to claim they should get paid for it.
I just can't see new games coming out on it and cutting the publishers out on box sales for this route. If this is exactly how the service works though, then I am astounded.
Though, If you could pay a flat rate monthly and play any regular game or MMO, how do you determine what game should earn more?
It can't be based on a chart of how many people spend time on one game vs the other though. The only time a "subscription package" that allows you to play multiple games works is when the company hosting the service owns all the games available. Like Station Pass.
If the Station Pass had games on it that were owned by other people, who then want their dues from it, how do you expect to divy the monthly cost their way? If it was based on time spent in it, they woudn't clear a dime in thanks to the available selection. For every game hopper there is, they lose out.
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Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
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MMOs on Onlive would be even worse than a standard game on Onlive.
With a regular game, your commands are sent to the onlive server which is currently running your game, those commands are then entered into the game, and the results are sent back to you, in the form of a video feed. This works okay so long as the onlive servers are doing all the processing, and your connection can handle the bandwidth properly.
With a MMO, there's another link in the chain. First, your command is sent to the onlive server, just like the normal game. However, unlike a single player game, the command then needs to be sent off to the MMO server. The MMO server processes the command, sends the results to the game at onlive, which then sends the results back to you. Basically, it's going to be extremely laggy, and there will be a fairly high delay between commands being sent and information being received. The delay is, from what I've heard, fairly noticeable on a single player game. I can only feel that it would be extremely bothersome when information needs to be sent to a third party.
Now with 57.3% more flames!
I have no use for a paid monthly subscription service (Onlive) that requires I buy a game through them (Onlive) so that I can play it at the graphics quaility they (Onlive) choose on my system that is fully capable of storing the complete game I purchase from any vendor (not locked into one specific vendor) at a price I am willing to pay. I can also play it at any graphics level my machine is capable of.
All on top of also paying the monthly subscription for the game itself.
It will be common in the future but I am not sure it will be the standard for MMOs.
One thing against it is the harddrives that will be coming in a few years, they will be huge and work both as harddrive and Ram. That will really speed up home computers and make stuff like zooning a thing of the past. With supercomputers like that, do we need something like onlive?
I think Onlive will very popular for games that are on consoles right now, particularly with kids games. It fits great for them and parents don't have to spend money on expensive consoles. MMO players are generally older so most of us can afford to buy a good computer.
I could see a few F2P games do onlive but I don't see companies like Blizzard and SOE using it.
"During these 12 months, your access to the Service will include free demos and community features, such as member Profiles, Friending, Chat, Spectating and Brag Clip™ videos, but will not include any games, content or other services that are offered for purchase, and which must be purchased separately."
So during the 12 free months you can't play any of the games? Am I reading this right?
Who cares about the social networking aspects of the service or demos. Can founding members play games for free for those 12 months?
People are complaing about the sub price, but forgetting it negates upgrading.
Ever decided to buy a game, but found out your CPU isn't fast enough, you don't have enough memory, you need a better graphics card?
So to play the game, you need to upgrade.
Playing games on a cloud, like Onlive, makes this problem disappear. No upgrading required to play the latest greates game. what does a good graphics card cost? Divided by 12?
Will it work on an MMORPG? I don't know. I understand the post above, that the onlive server has to communicate with the MMORPG server, making it laggy, but I don't know that this is correct. MMORPGs are actually more tolerant of lag than FPS games, so if it works with something like Borderlands, it might work just fine with something like an MMORPG.
So yes... and no. You can actually play demos (30 minutes) of every game offered. Also, they hand out the occasional free game code but otherwise you do have to buy them. Some are less than retail box or retail digitial download. Lego Harry Potter was $20 less than the Xbox version for instance.
The power of the technology is pretty amazing that games like unreal T can run on virtually any PC with a good internet connection and have no latency at all.
lag and latency i imagine would be a huge issue. You get it now with just information on characters and environment info being sent to you, imagine now with a video/audio stream as well?
oof...i just read you need a minimum of 5mbps to use the service....yeah good luck with that.
I did some digging a while ago and found OnLive doesn't run any game on max. Acutally from what I read it runs on 720p with no AA at medium-ish settings. If I wanted to run this, I wouldn't need an upgrade for a decade.
The thing is, OnLive charges %15 for subscription. And since everything is loaded through badnwidth from an ISP, you would also have to pay around $60 for a fast enough internet. That is $75 a month already...
Generally a CPU can last you a long time. I've had a dualcore on my desktop for 5 years that doesn't lag for Battlefield: Bad Company. Really, the only upgrade worth mentioning is the GPU. I can get a good card for $150 bucks that play pretty much everygame on max at 1080p with no AA.
So in comparison, say you have an average internet speed, 7mb/s. That is around $30 depending on you get it from. $30 a month + a yearly GPU upgrade (which is probably more often than anyone really does,) is around $400 a year, and I rounded up.
With onlive, you'd need more than 7mbit/s if you had anyother internet user in the house. So I would say 20-30mbit/s for around $60 a month. Plus the $15 a month from Onlive... total a year would be close to $900 a year.
Even if you already have fast internet, Onlive is still $180 a year, which is more than enough to buy a GPU that plays on higher settings than OnLive.
All of this on top of having to RELY on internet. What happens if you have a gaming laptop and game where no internet is found? What happens at LAN parties? If their servers go down? Your internet goes down? You just moved, now you can't game for the first week... Too many complications to make it worth while.
No lag you say so millions already play on onlive?
Answer is no, its still very early and few playing there so obvious no lag for now.
But there is onlive centre with hardware US?
Well prolly if your close to centre you maybe have no lag but with what conecction higher then 1mb upload?
Most people have under 1mb upload so no matter how good hardware onlive is majority will have lag and when millions start playing there lag will obvious increase alot.
And give money for game i never recieve no thx.
I need to be owner game and be incontrol of my hardware not some fague comapany far far away that can do whatever they want and you can do nothing if suddenly you cant play for what reason lol NO THX.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
And thats whole point you pay and they can do whatever they want and then its take it or leave it lower settings or not i will never pay for such service ive ZERO controll over or own nothing NO THX.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
They just hope for all who hate pc's or lack knowledge of pc's or just all to complicated for those and to lazy and just want click and play with no thinking blindly pay no fuss fall for this:P
Will microsoft intell nvidia ati be happy with this initiative i doub they will hehe.
This way you gave more and more control over how you play and spent your money while ZERO controll or ownership over what you pay for if thats what you want go for it, i myself will never give them that power no way.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
MMOs would only work properly on Onlive if the servers were hosted within Onlive's network, but it wouldn't be possible - they have too many "farms" spread around to provide you with the low latency needed. A MMO can't be spread out like that. Of course, many changes could be made to solve these issues, but Onlive will have to grow a lot before it happens.
You're paying a subscription to fully avoid hardware upgrades though.
Hmm i wasnt aware of the fact the games weren't even running on max settings or that you cant change the setting to better suit your own playstyle which is a huge let down for me but we have to keep in mind it's still pretty early and this technology will definitely improve over time.