General Discussion

Steve Williams of Firesky, the company creating the MMORPG Stargate Worlds, writes this dev log on the game's official page which highlights mini-games in the upcoming MMO.

My name is Steve Williams, and I am a MMO gamer and also a casual gamer. Give me an MMO, and I’ll play it. Give me a simple Flash game and I’ll play it. Wouldn’t it be fun if someone could mix the two flavors together and make a peanut butter cup of gameplay that would satisfy both MMO fun and casual fun?

So let’s talk about what mini-games are doing in a self-respecting MMO like Stargate Worlds - let’s talk about putting the peanut butter into the chocolate and making something tasty.

Since time immemorial, or at least the past few years, MMOs have focused upon two things: Killing stuff (and getting their loot) and making stuff for people to go kill stuff (and get their loot). As building games goes, that’s a pretty good spread of features, and it’s not too hard to make that work.

Read it all here.

*gives standing ovation to the idea of puzzles to solve* Yay. I've never understood why this wasn't part of the MMO games in the first place. I used to play Dungeons and Dragons and Vampire the Masquerade on tabletop and always thought THOSE were role playing games (like MMO's are meant to be) where the most fun part was ALWAYS solving the puzzles. Role Playing games aren't supposed to just be hack n' slash.

mini-games can be good to kill time waiting for buddies. But MMOs these days is all about rush, exploit and read levelguides so you can do endless high-end raids to get a pair of new boots which will have a hugh impact how your 1vs1 pvp combat will end.

I enjoyed reading that and it sounds interesting. I'm still looking forward to SGW.

Looking forward to the mini-games.  They've been sorely missing from MMOs.

I would love to sit down in a tavern type setting and play a game of chess or something.  It would be a great way to pass the time waiting on a raid!

This would define each class as well. A soldier type that's primarily about blowing stuff up wouldn't be a hacker, but a scientist or archaeologist type would solve problems another way instead of just blowing stuff up. Regardless of how linear the overall game progression will be, just adding more options to game play roles will help people in their experiences in all games. :)

-- Brede

They can add some old games like asteroids, tetris with an highscore...there will always be nut jobs spending our playing those instead of the actual game, trying to be god knows what highscore:)))

I never appreciated mini games in mmo's and played them only when there's really _nothing_ else to do. But well, every addition to Stargate worlds that makes it look complete is welcome :)

Minigames that are part of the storyline and are built into the MMOG in question are fine and can enhance the game. Minigames like the card games in Everquest 1 and 2 are stupid and detract from immersion of the MMOG when they are a separate entity.