Earthrise - About the game and beta announcements

As if someone heard my prayers, an MMO set in an apocalyptic world called Earthrise will soon be entering Beta stages. The game is made by Masthead Studios , a developer I haven't heard a word about until just recently while looking for new MMORPGs.

So what is Earthrise about?

Earthrise is a post apocalyptic science fiction MMORPG set in the distant future.

In the aftermath of the Third World War, mankind has managed to survive and build a new society: the prosperous city of Sal Vitas. Cloning, nanotechnology and quantum engineering are part of a new reality. Thanks to these technological advances, the human species has become immortal; each individual’s consciousness is stored in a data vault, ready to be uploaded into a cloned body as necessary. New energy sources have been discovered. There is a unified government that takes good care of those citizens who abide by its strict laws. Paradise, it appears, might really have come to Earth, and the people have embraced it.

But not everything is as perfect as it appears. By exercising full control over the cloning process, Sal Vitas' government decides who will live and who will not, playing the role of God on Earth. Insurgent forces have accused the city's rulers of crimes against humanity. Armed factions fight for resources and power within the new system. And from the waves of discontent, a rebellion has fomented and formed a shadow government: Noir.

Featuring a unique skill-based advancement system and player-driven economy, as well as extensive, meaningful player-vs.-player combat, Earthrise gives you innumerable choices to forge your destiny. Whether you're a noble soldier in the raging conflict between the Utopia and the rebellion, a criminal hiding from the law or a world-renowned engineer whose power extends into intricate trade and politics, your actions will echo throughout the game world.

Sounds wacky. After reading further about the game there are several things worthy of note. There is no "class" system for one. You build what you want to play from a selection of over 100 skills/abilities/tactics. Since I just recently spoke of the whole issue with classes in MMORPGs, I feel like my mind is being read...which is spooky.

Also is something most people love about EVE online, the ability to progress with something even while logged off. How Earthrise will do this I'm not entirely certain, but it will more than likely attract subscribers with that alone. Yes subscribers. It IS a subscription based MMORPG. So I'm really hoping it comes with a free trial so players can try before they buy. I've wasted quite a few bucks buying a MMORPG only to find it was horrid.

To close I'll show off some purity pictures I found of the game. Enjoy! And discuss...or suffer.

MMORPG Group Dynamics

Sony sure knows how to make people mad.

In a typical MMORPG, there are two types of characters that rarely have to LFG for long. The tank and the healer. With most players playing some type of DPS*Damage Per Second* class there is nearly a constant demand of tanks and healers. However in the latest expansion for the age old MMORPG EverQuest, that has changed.

Mercenaries.

To those new to this idea or just new to EverQuest entirely, mercenaries in this context are NPCs*Non-playable characters* you can hire to join your group like a normal PC*Player character*. In need of a healer? Hire one. In need of a tank? Hire one. DPS classes are now always able to hire these npcs in a pinch instead of possibly waiting for hours to find one ran by a human being.

This is a bad thing.

In EverQuest I now see a steady stream of Clerics LFG for hours on end. No one wants them now as they bring nothing to the table. A mercenary is far more reliable than a random person that could go afk without saying anything, be a loot hog, be an idiot, etc. Why take the risk? So we have an expansion that completely shuts down a complete class. But wait...they can just hire a tank mercenary too right?

Yeah, IF they have the latest expansion.

It seems SOE tried to fix its low player population with NPCs that simply encourages people not to group up with real players. I've joined several groups where around half of the group were Npcs. The ol days of a fun filled group chat filled with different personalities is long gone for EverQuest it seems. However this was simply a failed fix to a problem many MMORPGs suffer from. I know in my personal play time I was constantly LFG in World of Warcraft when I wanted to do a heroic instance. That or in a group that was looking for a tank and/or healer.

This could go on for hours.

So what is the solution to this? This isn't fun for the players of the DPS classes to be waiting for hours on end to snatch up the first healer/tank to make a whisper in the LFG channel. I frankly find it's time to abandon the classes that inspired MMORPGs, Dungeons & Dragons. While the archetypes concept worked very well in the table top scenario due to a large number of "friends" being there, it doesn't work online.

So, Hybrids. Classes that can function in several roles at ONCE. I'm not talking about WoW's current Hybrids such as a Priest can switch talent specs to dps or heal, or a Warriors tank or dps. The ability to perform BOTH tasks at once. Warhammer Online has done something akin to this with their classes.

So what do you think? Should MMORPGs stick with the D&D inspired ideas or adopt "classes" that can fulfill multiple roles? Or is there another solution besides a very bad one by SOE by using NPCs to replace PCs?

Leave a comment. Do it.

A City of Heroes Experience: Evil Teleport

This is a little nugget of true malice I thought I would share. A few years ago, when City of Heroes was first released a friend and I decided to go on a break from our other MMORPGs and give it a shot. However we didn't want to play as heroes, we wanted to play as some messed up evil guys.
Sadly City of Villains was no where in sight at the time so we did the best we could*Which was surprising in how well we did...*

So was born Marhault*my friend* and myself, Ahrimin. A bunch of whacked out evil guys deciding we would TRY to actually roleplay in a genre of games that encourages it in one hand and slaps you for doing it in the other. So there we went, boldly scaring kiddies with our evil characters and slaying bad guys like crazy.

However we got separated at one point. By separated I mean Marhault was in some alley way fighting a large group of enemies and I was on top a roof fighting a few. While I finished mine on without a problem, Marhault was in trouble. He had pulled wayyyy too many. So I offered to teleport him to my location to safety.

The evil starts now.

He agreed, so I clicked his name, and was given a little circle radius cursor to pick where he appeared. So I did what any evil being would do. I put the cursor in thin air over just the edge of the building.*Note - I think NCSoft made it to where you can't do this anymore..but back then..you could!* For a brief second he just floated there, on the precipice of his own demise...then he fell a loooonnnnggg way down.

To those that have never played City of Heroes, falling can never kill a character. It's just not very heroic to die from a fall. However it can put you down to 1hp. Which was the case for Marhault, then a level 1 NPC walked up and slapped him, ending his life. It was quite possibly one of the funniest*and more evil* things I've done in an MMORPG.

I wonder why he doesn't call me anymore..

Author's note - This happened some years ago, which is why I don't have any great pics to add to this story. However if you wanna give out City of Heroes a try, you can use a free trial here...

City of Heroes® Be a hero... and crush crime