Anyone know if there are any real online RPGs for a console coming out soon? I know about Phantasy Star Online, but that sounds more like a Diablo kind of online quest game.  I'm thinking more along the lines of EverQuest or Asheron's Call. You know, an entire persistant online world with cities, outdoor areas, dungeons to explore.  Grouping with PCs, slowly gaining experience and levels, forming guilds, with different classes and races to play, questing for rare and powerful items, learning trade skills, a p_layer_ run economy, p_layer_ and GM run events, a changing world and storyling, the whole 9 yards. The kind of experience that people spend 100 days of real life playing time experiencing (as some do now, believe it or not...that damn EverQuest is addictive).  Not just grouping with people to do quests, like Diablo/Darkstone/Nox type games.  They're fun for awhile, but it's not quite the same experience. Anyways, with all the next generation consoles coming out with online capabilities, I figured at least one must be coming out.  I heard rumors about EQ2 or Star Wars Online coming out for PS2, but I've heard nothing concrete...just rumors.  And I know Final Fantasy XI is supposed to be online, but that's not coming for a couple years (if that). Anything else I've missed in the console world?  Or should I be sticking to my PC for my online RPG needs? Final Fantasy 11 will actually be what you call a 'true' online Rpg... -Joshua

Anyone know if there are any real online RPGs for a console coming out soon? I know about Phantasy Star Online, but that sounds more like a Diablo kind of online quest game.  I'm thinking more along the lines of EverQuest or Asheron's Call. You know, an entire persistant online world with cities, outdoor areas, dungeons to explore.  Grouping with PCs, slowly gaining experience and levels, forming guilds, with different classes and races to play, questing for rare and powerful items, learning trade skills, a p_layer_ run economy, p_layer_ and GM run events, a changing world and storyling, the whole 9 yards. The kind of experience that people spend 100 days of real life playing time experiencing (as some do now, believe it or not...that damn EverQuest is addictive).  Not just grouping with people to do quests, like Diablo/Darkstone/Nox type games.  They're fun for awhile, but it's not quite the same experience. Anyways, with all the next generation consoles coming out with online capabilities, I figured at least one must be coming out.  I heard rumors about EQ2 or Star Wars Online coming out for PS2, but I've heard nothing concrete...just rumors.  And I know Final Fantasy XI is supposed to be online, but that's not coming for a couple years (if that). Anything else I've missed in the console world?  Or should I be sticking to my PC for my online RPG needs?

: : Anyone know if there are any real online RPGs for a console coming out soon? : I know about Phantasy Star Online, but that sounds more like a Diablo kind : of online quest game.  I'm thinking more along the lines of EverQuest or : Asheron's Call. : : You know, an entire persistant online world with cities, outdoor areas, : dungeons to explore.  Grouping with PCs, slowly gaining experience and : levels, forming guilds, with different classes and races to play, questing : for rare and powerful items, learning trade skills, a p_layer_ run economy, : p_layer_ and GM run events, a changing world and storyling, the whole 9 yards. : The kind of experience that people spend 100 days of real life playing time : experiencing (as some do now, believe it or not...that damn EverQuest is : addictive).  Not just grouping with people to do quests, like : Diablo/Darkstone/Nox type games.  They're fun for awhile, but it's not quite : the same experience. : : Anyways, with all the next generation consoles coming out with online : capabilities, I figured at least one must be coming out.  I heard rumors : about EQ2 or Star Wars Online coming out for PS2, but I've heard nothing : concrete...just rumors.  And I know Final Fantasy XI is supposed to be : online, but that's not coming for a couple years (if that). : : Anything else I've missed in the console world?  Or should I be sticking to : my PC for my online RPG needs? : Final Fantasy 11 will actually be what you call a 'true' online Rpg... ...and with a name like Final Fantasy attached to it, it will probably attract jerk p_layer_s like flies to horse dung. I don't care how good a system/story/whatever the game's got, I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. Or any console MMORPG for that matter. I play a lot of MMORPGs, and the number of antisocial twits that play them are astronomical. And these are on the PC, whose gaming p_layer__base_ is generally of significantly higher age than the console gaming market. (The worst offenders tend to be teenagers) A larger p_layer__base_, a lower average age of the p_layer__base_, all combined with a big name like Final Fantasy spells doom. Grief p_layer_s will flock to it. If they allow unrestrained PKing/p_layer_ thieving, the game will be an utter nightmare. (Remembers the 16,000 PKs in Ultima Online named Sephiroth) Sure there will be plenty of decent p_layer_s, but it only takes a handful of jerks to ruin it for everyone else. Another problem with FFXI or any other console MMORPG is that it can't be patched. The big 3 currently (UO, EQ, AC) are constantly updated to patch bugs, fill in security holes and exploits, etc. Since all the consoles I'm aware of use non-rewritable media to store their games, all patching would have to be done server-side. This means you'd have to have a bare-bones client to do any serious patching, and that means vicious lag since the servers have to do more work. Not to mention that the PS2/DC are equipped with...what was it, a 56k modem? That's hardly fast enough for any serious bandwidth-requiring gaming. It's a catch-22; either make your client handle most of the work and have a game that is unpatchable and whose balance can't be tweaked as well, or have the server handle the work and get massive lag. Either way you get a less-than-ideal game. In short: If you want to play an MMORPG, stick with your PC. The medium is much better suited for them, until they start introducing large amounts of rewritable media for the consoles.