MMOs: Where are they?

[dhraad]

Clans. Guilds. Servers.

Halo. Diablo. Counter-strike. Warcraft. Starcraft. Everquest.

I know that most of us have devoted at least a few hours to gaming online. Heck, some people have died because they forgot that sustanance in the digital realm converts in no way whatsoever onto the Prime Material plane.

These games are addictive, and rightly so, because we can interact with other gamers from the same room to the opposite ends of the earth. The premise can be as simple as fragging each other to joining to form epic struggles against hordes of kobolds, or dragons, or soccer moms or whatever.

Console systems are going online. The Xbox and PS2 went online. All of the next-gen systems have online functionality. Handhelds have limited or full online access.

I want to know: where are the MMOs for psp? We have the technology, we have the online access, we just dont have the games.

I work an audit shift at a hotel, and it gets boring. Really boring. Its hard to find someone with a psp to ad-hoc with at the best of times, and I believe one of the most promising features of the psp is being overlooked. If I can get online with my handheld, shouldnt I be able to get on a server and hack it out with some of my friends on the east coast, or britan, or anywhere?

Psp owners are a big community. Look at this forum. There are more out there. Take a game, make it online, and for real online, and let the gamers play. Let us play a MMO where we can actually play on the way from the couch to the toilet, on the toilet, and back to the couch again. No more AFK, because we dont need a keyboard (would be useful, though!).

I fervently hope that sometime soon we can enjoy saving or destroying the world as one, and not 3-8 people ad-hoc-ing in one localized area.:thumbup:

[Ryuk and apples]

I have thought about MMO's and as far as I have been told, they are strictly not possible. The PSP cannot handle thousands of people online at the same time, not even a Runescape like game. However, there is that one RPG online, 4 players a server. Untold Legends 2, I hated it but meh.

I am a serious fan of RPG's, MMO's, and all of that. I have been wanting a massive online RPG for a handheld for a long while. I just don't think that it can happen. Sadly enough, however I do know this.. Someone is working on an RPG that I was apart of for a while, soon left the dev team. It's a PSP Java browser rpg, I was told it held 200 people at once. You can check it out at the Sony forums, not sure if its released even in beta form yet.

[x999x]

To be the best in an MMO, you will have invested the most time on your character than your competitors have.

Time =/= PSP's default battery. Plug it in and play? The third P in PSP actually stands for Portable. :P

Given that we power users have backup batteries, or higher rated batters with extended play times, we make up the minority, and developers weigh in on that sort of stuff when they consider a project.

I think the best we can bargain for is something close to Diablo, which for all intents and purposes, is just fine by me, and is still light years ahead of what's currently available to us anyway.

[dhraad]

At least MGS:Portable Ops has a good multiplayer function over the Internet.

[Nicko01]

I wish dungeons would go online. That would be very fun.

[Cloudhunter]

I have thought about MMO's and as far as I have been told, they are strictly not possible. The PSP cannot handle thousands of people online at the same time, not even a Runescape like game.

The PSP is more powerful then you give it credit for.

Cloudy

[Tesseract]

The PSP doesn't really have to handle the server functions, just the Client.

Think about something like Ragnarok Online. Fairly simple sprite-based graphics, decent-sized world, rather large player base. Something like that would be perfect for the PSP. Commercially, it could easily be pressed onto a UMD.

Saying you want Diablo online doesn't make sense 'cause there is the like of Untold Legends. Lots of games have online collaboration, but that's not a persistent world. I think that's the main point... the lack of a 'living, breathing' world that DOES keep going without you.

An MMO for the PSP would be wise to take advantage of the fact that one might not be able to log in for long or as often as a PC/Console based one. Having passive tasks to do like gardening or other crafts that just need time to do, combined with the ability to quickly matchmake within the world for parties would be a must. To keep those of us who are explorers happy, it'd still have to be a fairly large world.... But slow travel should be optional. Fast travel would be a must.

If someone starts a project, count me in. I may not have much in coding skills, but play balance and writing are fun to do. ;)

[BlackShark]

Some day.....Some day im going to make an Online FPS MMO about a world infested with Zombies....You would have clans and such, missions to go into cities to scouge for resources....it will be awesome....Some Day...(gimme about 6-7 years, after a Graduate from Collage and have some experience in the field...it will happen)

[Tesseract]

T'be honest, I'm not so sure an FPS MMO would be the best option for the PSP. 'sides... Why waste time with coding for the PSP? The PSP2 would likely be out by the time you're out of college!