APB First Look - David Jones wows with 1st MMO

[Draegan]

IGN: APB Preview

GTA-MMO anyone? Looks awesome to me.

[Zarcath]

There was some posts about this before. Nice to see them making progress, but...

I can imagine it getting pretty repetitive. From the reviewers description, it sounds like the game world is more like an interactive lobby system, and when you "steal" something, you're thrown into an instance and another team is auto-matched against you. Seems like a shit deal for enforcement if they can only respond to crimes and not just randomly start shit with gangs.

If the developers have a mind-set of dedicated server thats disposable fun, I can't see them designing any long-term content for it other than bling. Would be nice if they expanded more on the turf wars and "end-game" content.

[LennyLenard]

It does look pretty interesting.

A few things I wonder though. What will players be able to do while not commiting/stopping crimes? Will a criminal be able to waltz into a police station and drink coffee with his officer buddy?

How do the crimes end? I imagine getting killed is probably the easiest, but does it also include arresting and jail time? What is to keep passerbyers from jumping into the fray? What's to keep people from ALT-F4ing to avoid dying/losing?

So many questions...

Definitely something I'm going to keep my eye on though.

[Zehn - Vhex]

Best part of the article.

"One of the problems with user created content is that 90% of it is crap. We've all seen Second Life."

Zing my friend. Zing that motherfucker indeed.

Whoever this Jones guy is, I like him already.

[Twobit Whore]

It basically sounds like Arena Matchmaking, with cops and robbers. You 'queue' for a crime and get matched with cops looking to stop a crime.

Yeah, what do you do when waiting? Go spray paint graffitti?

It definitely sounds interesting and innovative but I wonder how much longterm appeal it will have. One thing he neglects to mention about Counterstrike in his examples is that it is free and constantly updated and modified.

[Draegan]

David Jones Biography
David has been involved in the video game industry since 1983. He is well known for his past company (DMA Design Ltd.) and for his catalogue of hit games. Over the years David has written and designed over 15 games, most notably two global hit franchises which still sell today. Lemmings, with sales of over 20 million across 20 formats, and Grand Theft Auto with sales of over 50 million.

After a merger and successful IPO with Gremlin Group PLC, and subsequent take over by Infogrames, David left to pursue a new goal. Currently creating what he believes will be the first mass market on-line video game.

IGN: David Jones Biography

[Draegan]

I get the feeling it's a little more dynamic than creating arena matchmaking.

There is a point in the article where a guy is stealing a tv and sees another cop chase down another criminal.

I'll pay attention to it and hopefully find more info.

[gurgi]

Instancing has it's place, but I'm getting kind of tired of it tbh.

At some point your game ceases to be a persistent world (MMO), and becomes a multiplayer game with a fancy lobby. It seems worse when you realize that shards limit the other players you can be matched with too.

There's nothing wrong with multiplayer games, but we shouldn't mislabel them.

[Braen]

At first glace at the guys name, I thought it was a Monkee's based music MMO...

[Digo]

I'm really tired of how derogatory some devs are about MMOs. Yes, we get that you think MMOs have a high barrier to entry. You'd think that with 10 million WoW players, developers would stop doing that by now and figure out why the game (and the genre) is so successful, and go from there, rather than trying to remove those elements and label it a "next-gen" MMO, or whatever he's claiming APB is.

[Draegan]

I think he's attempting to remove the tedious and boring elements and just add fun stuff. Which originally was blizzards ideology.

[Twobit Whore]

Well it will certainly be an interesting social expirement. Just how appealing will the prospect of only getting a cool t-shirt for being good at the game be?

In the end I see this as a primarily console title, where it will see much more success than it would on the PC. Of course if he is going with the old 'slap a monthly fee on any game and call it an MMO' approach then I am not so confident it will be accepted.

[Draegan]

I'd be interested in a more indepth discussion on how your looks translate to your "power" or "experience". Is that going to be a tangible stat?

[Drajakur]

Heh heh:

'The new players feel like they have a chance since they have numbers while the experienced player can show his skills. This mission ended with the cop killing all four criminals with a rocket launcher.'

Well it sounds kinda cool, but does give the impression of being a match-making system more than a MMO. Not gonna pay a monthly fee for dynamic matching of what amounts to a FPS.

However, if there is some level of persistence and a real tension between pigs (oh I mean cops) and gangs, then could be fun.

[Grave]

Wasn't too impressed with the video.

I'd say a game like this wont be done right until GTA 5, which will probably have heavy online components.