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Where's the MMO award?
posted by: Ron Keith Tue 16th Mar 2010
Where's the MMO award?
By Ron Keith
Don't you love award shows?
We love that anticipation and thrill just before the opening of the envelop: Will Avatar win? You really liked Avatar. Millions of people liked Avatar. How could it not be Avatar?
Then there's that moment when they tear open the envelop and announce the winner. Hurt Locker! Aww, it should have been Avatar. You talk about it all the next day. How could they not pick Avatar? Has anyone even seen Hurt Locker?
If there's one thing we like to talk about after the awards are passed out it's who got snubbed.
It was Oscar time for the gaming community, last week. The Game Developers Conference held their annual convention and passed out some awards to their com padres, and they pretty much snubbed MMOs.
In the Game of the Year category, there wasn't an MMO in the bunch. The nominees were: Dragon Age: Origins; Assassin's Creed II; Batman: Arkham Asylum; Demon's Souls; and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves took the prize as game of the year. A worthy recipient. No one's going to complain about that. In fact, maybe it's spurred you to finally buy that PS3. Good for you.
No MMOs in the Game of the Year nominees, though.
That's okay. Hey, 2009 was a slow year for MMOs, wasn't it? Among the new releases, there was Champions, Aion, League of Legends and Fallen Earth. Not great games, but not bad. There were a few free-to-play games, notably Free Realms and Jade Dynasty. Plus, some well-received expansions, such as Runes of Magic: The Elven Prophecy, City of Heroes: Architect Edition and Lord of the Rings: Siege of Mirkwood. Hmm. Maybe it wasn't such a bad year for MMOs, after all.
Okay, maybe none of those MMOs were good enough to qualify as Game of the Year. Surely, one of these games must have been nominated for something, right?
Let's see... Best Writing? Nope. Best Visual Art? Not there. (Yes, Aion was completely snubbed. Not even nominated.) Best Innovation? Not there, either. MMOs were nominated in only two categories: Best Debut and Best New Social/Online Game.
League of Legends was nominated in the Best Debut category. That's nice. It's good to see an MMO in the debut category.
But the Best New Social/Online Game category makes no sense, at all. They lumped Sony's Free Realms in with Bejeweled Blitz and Farmville. Farmville is a Facebook app! No offense meant to fine games like Farmville, but comparing an MMO like Free Realms to a Facebook app is like comparing a tricycle to a Porsche. (Okay, maybe MMOs are more like mini-vans, but you get the idea.)
Games like Bejeweled Blitz and Farmville are very one-dimensional. Whether you're exploding groups of jewels or building your farm, the games have a single focus and don't deviate much from it.
MMOs are robust games with lots of different gameplay features, such as combat, crafting and exploration. They offer a variety different characters and character builds, and usually a multitude of ways to interact with people online. They require millions of dollars and thousands upon thousands of hours to develop.
Times have changed. Gone are the days when only one or two MMOs used to be introduced every year. There are lots of new MMOs and expansions to existing MMOs hitting the market every year, now. More than enough to fill a new awards category.
Please, Game Developers, give MMOs their own award category. They deserve it.
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