Stargate Worlds to Have Free Content

In typical MMO fashion, FireSky, the developer behind the upcoming MMO Stargate Worlds, announced that they would be including much of the game's extra content in the monthly subscription cost, and would not be charging their customers extra for said content.

While this is good news, it strikes me as odd that such a big deal would be made out of something that should be done anyway. Just about every MMO in recent memory follows this model, including World of Warcraft. I suppose it has to be noted by the developer because its not often that an MMO that aims to be successful comes around that is based on a television series that has thousands of fans worldwide, many of which are not gamers. They may not be familiar with how MMOs typically work.

I just dread the day the developer has to fudge Stargate lore to make something work better in-game. It'll be interesting to watch the fan reaction to that.

In a Perfect World...

This post came to mind based on a conglomeration of recent Stargate happenings. After watching the last couple episodes of Stargate Atlantis, reading a couple interviews on Joe Mallozzi's blog and seeing a new trailer for the MMO Stargate Worlds around the time of E3, I got to thinking - what would a dynamically updated MMO be like?

Most MMO worlds are fairly static the majority of the time. Many WoW players poke fun of how long they've been building the inn in Westfall or the bridge near Lakeshire. Its true, the world environment changes in some way in many patches, but those patches come around once every three or four months, if not longer. They rarely enact large changes to the world environment and the quests that go with them. While this may be a way to introduce these changes, I don't feel its truly dynamic. Truth be told, WoW is a bad example, because of the fact that dynamic content such as I'm about to discuss would be difficult to add to WoW in its present form simply because the lore isn't produced often enough - a few books here and there (most of which cover past events, not current ones) and whatever Blizzard decides to actually add to WoW is about it.

This is where Stargate comes into play. When Stargate Worlds launches, I assume Atlantis, Universe or some combination of the two will still be on the air every week. My whole premise is this: What if the game content was updated weekly and the game world was affected by the changes in that week's episode?

Take a leap with me now. Let's assume SGW is live and let's assume it has Atlantis-based content already in the game. Last week's episode was about an alternate-reality Earth ship - the Daedalus - just "hopping" into the reality of our heroes. The Atlantis team then boards the abandoned ship to check it out and are thus on it when it hops to another alternate universe. The team must then find a way to get back to their own universe while surviving the circumstances they hop into in these alternate realities.

What if, after the episode aired, the game was patched to have a similar occurrence available to our players? Would you make the decision to investigate this mysterious "double" of one of your ships? Will you blow it out of the sky instead? A series of quests could be added based around the plot of the current week's episode.

Another example, if you will. Atlantis is involved in a rather large battle in which it is damaged visibly in the television episode. After it airs, the game is patched so that Atlantis is shown as damaged in the game, as well. But, it won't stay that way. Over time it will be repaired, perhaps by the following episode, or maybe a couple weeks down the line.

This is all incredibly dynamic content. I realize it would also be incredibly ambitious to attempt to meet such an update schedule, but, like the title says, in a perfect world, I think this would be perfect to add to an MMO like Stargate Worlds, that has active lore being dished out on a weekly basis.

New MMO Players Ignorant?

Recently I've been keeping tabs on the discussions going on at the Stargate Worlds forums. It seems many people there are interested in the upcoming MMO just because its Stargate, not because its an MMO. One person I saw post today in the beta test forums was looking forward to beta but had never played an MMO before, he was interested only because it was Stargate.

Now, this is good on some level. I know players in LotRO who have never played an MMO before, and were drawn to this one because it was based on the lore in the books. In other words, they're fans of the media off which the game is made, not the game genre itself. More fans of the books equals more players, which equals a more successful game, right?

Something just disturbs me about all these people asking about beta invites for Stargate Worlds who openly admit they've never played an MMO before and are completely ignorant when it comes to this genre of games. If I was a developer, there's no way I'd send out beta invites to these people. To be successful, the game must be an MMO first, and a Stargate lore machine second. This means the testers need to be looking at it with that mindset, not an "oh look, this was in episode 315!!!" mindset.

While LotRO has a very comprehensive, while still fairly strict, license for The Lord of the Rings book trilogy and The Hobbit, you still see plenty of areas where they are forced to take creative license to make it work as an MMO. This is something I still don't think some fans of the books who started playing LotRO because of that aspect alone realize. Come to think of it, this problem plagues any MMO that has a deep, rich back story, even mega hits such as World of Warcraft.

I also think some potential players are ignorant in what they expect to see in an MMO such as Stargate Worlds. People seem to have high expectations, mostly based off of vague statements that the developers have made. They read things into their words and assume the game is going to be just like they or the developers envision it. In reality, it rarely works that way.

Maybe I'm just jaded from being around MMOs for quite a while - I've seen developer's unfulfilled promises, game lore altered or added for the sake of game play (which is a good thing) and just about every aspect that goes along with playing an MMO. Some people, especially people who are drawn to these MMOs because of the franchise, not because its an MMO, have no idea what they're getting themselves into. And yes, this bothers me on some level.

Stargate Continuum - High Praises from Gateworld

While the recently released feature-length wrap up to the last two seasons of Stargate SG-1 - The Ark of Truth - was fairly well received, and sold very well, many people don't understand the differences between the two Stargate movies coming out this year.

The Ark of Truth was most definitely not a stand-alone Stargate movie. I think some people were expecting it to be, in some manner, and didn't like it as much because of that. All this last movie was aspiring to be was a feature-length "last episode" to the series to tie up the story arc of the last couple seasons. That's it. Sure, it has some manner of feature film quality to it and a larger budget than your average two-episode SG-1 show, but all it really was was a continuation of the series.

The next movie - Stargate Continuum - aspires to be a whole lot more. Its a stand-alone adventure for our favorite characters, which apparently serves well to introduce people to the franchise, as well as refresh the love long-time fans have for this world that has been 11 years in the making.

The big-wigs over at Gateworld were able to attend a special screening of Continuum recently and they had nothing but the highest praise for that movie. The Ark of Truth apparently pales in comparison to Continuum as a feature film. This is good to know. While I did enjoy The Ark of Truth very much, I think I'm looking forward to Continuum even more. Set your calendars for July 29, 2008!

The Ark of Truth Hits Store Shelves

So, the huge finale to the last two seasons of Stargate SG-1 was just released last week, straight to DVD. According to some people I've talked to, it was sold out fairly early on at some Best Buy stores. We've been waiting for this movie for nearly a year, since the final episode of SG-1 aired last spring. Was it worth it? Definitely!

A lot of people are hating on The Ark of Truth because of a few continuity issues (all of which are rather subjective, as is) and overuse of some previous themes and foes.

~~~ SPOILERS BELOW THIS LINE...YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ~~~




Overall, I definitely enjoyed the movie. Its a fitting conclusion to the last two seasons of SG-1, that's for sure. Too many people like to nitpick, and personally, I fail to see how you can enjoy a movie (or anything, for that matter) if you nitpick so much. Its a movie, its for entertainment purposes. I sure was entertained, that's really all that matters. There were a few issues, though. Here's my run down of pros and cons of the movie.

Pros:
~ The story overall, the IOA sub-plot.
~ Tobin becoming a good guy (although this was hinted at near the end of SG-1)
~ Excellent camera work, good transition from television to movie format.
~ Awesome soundtrack, mixing original Stargate, SG-1 and Atlantis themes all together.
~ The replicator surprise - I was completely not expecting that.
~ The Daniel/Vala dialog near the start of the film.
~ All the archaeology stuff...reminded me of early SG-1.
~ The way it all came together at the end - Morgan Le Fay telling Daniel that she has already helped and the audience figuring out that we've already seen the results of her help.
~ The contrast between Morgan Le Fay and Adria really shows the differences between the Ori and the Ancients. I don't think that distinction had ever been seen on-screen like that before.
~ The final scene where the team referred to the fact that there's still a lot of unexplored planets out there. Things continue on, business as usual (until Carter decides to transfer to Atlantis, that is).

Cons:
~ No RDA.
~ As much as I liked the introduction and the surprise, too much focus was given to the replicators. Seems like they relied on it as a crutch to fill time.
~ Too little Adria, although I liked the fire effect that surrounded her in those few short scenes.
~ Where was Doctor Lam in the Infirmary scene near the end?
~ Lack of screen time focusing on SG-1 discussing the moral implications of forcing the Ark of Truth on the Ori, you would have thought this would definitely be something that Daniel would bring up.

Again, great conclusion to the last couple seasons of SG-1. What it is not is a stand alone movie to introduce people to the Stargate franchise. If you try that, even with the prologue that recaps seasons nine and ten, they're likely to be more confused than interested in watching the whole series.

An Uninspiring Week

Its been slow this week. I have been trying hard to post every day, but I've failed this week, mostly because I was sick and just generally not feeling well through the weekend and the first part of this week.

I do have a couple things to say though. Actually, they're more like updates. First off, GameFly actually came through and the game they mailed to me arrived in five days. I'm surprised.

That game - Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction - is completely addicting. I mean, sometimes I just can't stop playing it, its that good. Actually, its just not good, its fun. That's most important.

Lastly, I now own all 10 incredible seasons of Stargate SG-1. Its the first television series (well, except for Firefly, but that's only one season) that I own in its entirety. I'm also all set for the release of the first direct-to-DVD SG-1 movie, which will be unleashed on the world in March.

Atlantis Returns with "Be All My Sins Remember'd"

Last Friday was the return of Stargate Atlantis, after only a month off during the holidays. I must say, I think this episode replaces "Missing" as my favorite episode of the season so far. After all the stuff SG-1 did with the replicators, its nice to know that there's still new stories and new twists they can write to keep the audience interested in the same old baddies (after all, they did it with the Go'auld for 10 years on SG-1).

The one and only part of the episode I thought could have been fleshed out more (but I know it was edited for time) was the moral dilemma of creating a sentient being in the form of a human-form replicator, and then sending her to her death. The thought came up, but was quickly bypassed. As Spock always said, "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few", I suppose, right?

My favorite parts of the episode were: Teyla finally revealing "the news" to Shepperd and Ronon, the massive space battle scenes (those took four months to make!) and the huge twist at the very end of the episode, which they somehow managed to keep a secret from the grimy, needy hands of the spoiler-hungry fans.

Another scene that I really liked, although it may seem inconsequential to most, is when Rodney was explaining to Shepherd and Carter how they were going to destroy the replicators. Half way through the scene, a light finally flashes on in Carter's head and she understands what Rodney is talking about, and they both start finishing each other's sentences. I liked this scene because it was like the Carter we all know and love from SG-1 was back. I realize her job on Atlantis is more on the administration side of things - running the entire expedition - and that she usually takes a back seat to the team (Shepherd, Rodney, Teyla and Ronon), but I miss her coming up with all her crazy ideas to fix problems they get themselves into.

And, lastly, I must say that Rodney's idea to destroy the replicators comes close to topping Carter's "let's blow up the sun to destroy the Go'auld fleet" way back in early SG-1. Close...but not quite. Better luck next time Rodney. ;)