Early Access Season for John, Mark, and Raph

 'Tis the season for Early Access apparently. After years of development, three games I've been following have announced and/or launched into Early Access. Unlike Christmas, though, this is not a time to celebrate.

John Smedley

 Reaper Actual, a John Smedley special (yes, that John Smedley), launched itself into Early Access and landed with a resounding THUD. Steam Charts topped out at 70 (yes, 70) peak concurrent players before falling to just single-digit players at any time beyond that peak. Reviews are "Very Negative," and the general consensus is, "There isn't even a game to play." What a fall from the heights of Smedley's pioneer status in the MMORPG genre.

 

Mark Jacobs

 Camelot Unchained, a Mark Jacobs special (yes, that Mark Jacobs), also stumbled its way into Early Access on Steam and dropped its NDA so we can finally talk about it. Not to be outdone by Reaper Actual, Camelot Unchained peaked at over 500 concurrent players and has maintained 100+ concurrent players. Reviews, like player count, edged out Reaper Actual at "Mostly Negative," with the common thread being, "The game barely works, if you can even call it a game." I have not played it yet, but I did participate in the beta previously (though that time is under NDA). I will need to look into whether my Kickstarter backing gets me access to the Steam version or not. Another sad fall for one of the pioneers of MMORPGs.

 

Raph Koster

 

 Stars Reach, a Raph Koster special (yes, that Raph Koster), also announced that it is moving into Early Access this summer. The Stars Reach playtest, which I've spent some time with, has been around for a while, and the game has changed quite a bit. Yet the Steam Charts for Stars Reach Playtest tell the sad story of single-digit peak player counts, with a prior peak of 117. Playtest access is limited, so we'll have to see how the community reacts when the game hits Early Access. I am sure Raph, who is a bedrock cornerstone of MMORPG history in my view, would like to see more players.

 Of the three, Stars Reach is the most promising. There is an actual game with actual content. Reaper Actual is just a shell at this point. Camelot Unchained is mostly a tech demo built on a decades-old game engine. Stars Reach has lots of cool ideas, from building to terraforming to combat and all of the other things you'd expect from a Raph Koster online world.

 However, as I stated up front, this is not a Christmas morning feeling, finally getting these long-overdue games from the pioneers of the MMORPG genre. I'll be amazed if Reaper Actual is around this time next year; I just can't see it surviving this flop. Camelot Unchained has already figured out how to exist for 13+ years, so it may have some more time left, but I imagine most folks are like me: "Really... this is what we waited 13 years for?" Stars Reach moving into Early Access makes me worry that the funding is drying up. They already ran a Kickstarter well into development, and now moving into Early Access to secure additional funding does not feel great.

 The bad-news MMO bears of 2026 march on.

October 2024 In Review

 October 2024 is in the books!

The Blog

 Blogger provided number (last 30 days graph so a bit off a full month): 19,800

 Note: this is missing the first few days of October where there was a spike in traffic visiting my Hurricane Helene posts.  You can see it falling off on the left side.

 

 In other metrics:

• Posts:
  
• Target: 0
  
• Posted: 24
  
• Difference: +24!  With the hurricane havoc every post was a win!
  
•  Search Trends
• "new world roadmap 2024" remains the top result that drops folks onto the blog
  
• "best battlefield game", "best battlefield", "best battlefield games" continue to drive traffic as well to Best Battlefield!?

What I Played

 October started with no gaming due to the hurricane causing power and internet outages, but towards the middle of the month I was able to get going with Throne and Liberty and that has consumed most of my gaming time.  I have two level 50 characters now and am working to max out my main's gear.

 I did spend a little bit of time in New World as well.

Years Ago

1 Year Ago

 Last year in October 2023 we got a chance to play The Finals beta and I ended up really enjoying it.  It didn't hold me long term but my oldest son is addicted and plays every day.  He is pretty good at it too.  Every once and a while I hop back on to play with him.

 We also got the "mind blowing" Star Citizen video.  A year later I am not sure anyone can say the game is any closer to what that video promises.

 Oh and New World's expansion, Rise of the Angry Earth, launched.  It brought mounts, level 65, level 700 GS, and a bunch of changes to the game.  It was light on content and staying power, but feature wise it was great.

5 Years Ago

  Oct 2019 was in the 'not a lot of blogging' era and nothing comes to mind.

10 Years Ago

 In October of 2014 I was getting a chance to play Archage for the first time.  I honestly couldn't remember the game all that well so it was good to re-read my initial impressions post.  My... uhhh... younger self does come through in the post.

15 Years Ago

 Setting a milestone and trend that continues to this day in October of 2009 World of Warcraft launched cross-realm (aka cross-server) dungeons and thus ended the idea that you were limited to the server you joined in an MMORPG.

 For fantasy readers: we received the first Wheel of Time book co-authored by Brandon Sanderson.

 We also got the Left 4 Dead 2 trailer; one of my favorite game trailers of all time!

 20 19 Years Ago

 Technically I have 20 named years on my sidebar, but mathematically 2005 is only 19 years ago.

 In Oct of 2005 we had hints that Diablo 3 may become an MMORPG.  Oh how wrong we were!

 We all celebrated Raph Koster starting his blog in 2005!  And he is still at it today which is pretty cool as I've gotten the chance to catch up with him over Discord as he works on his new project, Stars Reach!

 Oh and I got banned from the World of Warcraft forums for posting a picture of a magazine article.  A magazine I physically had in my hands.  Ironically this ban stands to this day!

Stars Reach

 This blog is my blog.  It goes where I go.  I am probably one of the biggest Raph Koster fan boys out there.  He even once posted on his blog about me.  Yes, me!  Now Raph is making waves in the MMO community with his new game Stars Reach.  So why haven't I talked about Stars Reach yet?  Well that's simple: I've been playing games and blogging about them.

 Blaugust is a great chance to switch things up a bit and talk about fresh topics and Stars Reach is right up my alley.  It also fits well with the "get to know me" week of Blaugust because in order to talk about Stars Reach we need to step back and talk about Star Wars Galaxies (SWG)!

 First I should note that I am a huge Star Wars fan.  I can't pinpoint specifically where in my life that I became a fan, but I do have a core memory of sitting on the living room floor as a kid and watching the opening scene of A New Hope being broadcast.  My family didn't go to the movies so catching a movie on the TV was about it.  Eventually I was known to check out every Star Wars book from the local library and the rest is history (and I still maintain the original expanded universe, now called Legends, is far superior to what Disney is doing).

 Now take a love of Star Wars and combine it with the early days of massively multiplayer games and throw in a shaker of Raph Koster and we got Star Wars Galaxies.  For me personally I saw a lot of Ultima Online in SWG and that was exciting.  At the time I didn't know much of Raph Koster but through being in early alpha tests for SWG I learned about him and found myself nodding along to most things he was saying.

 I ended up having a love-hate relationship with SWG.  I loved that it was Star Wars and that it was an open world where I could build my house anywhere and be the moisture farmer I always wanted to be in Star Wars.  I hated though that the game didn't focus on the moisture farmers and eventually with the infamous New Game Experience (NGE) it was clear combat was the focus.  SWG never delivered on the promise for me.

 Fast forward today and we have Raph Koster hard at work on a spiritual successor to SWG.  He even went so far as to say the words out loud: Koster calls Stars Reach a “Star Wars Galaxies 2.0,”.  So what does that mean?

 It means an online game that is focused on more than just combat. A game that is trying to do so much more than  just be a themepark.  To do the scope justice let me pull from Raph's announcement blog post:

Stars Reach uses simulation to a degree never seen in an MMO before. We know the temperature, the humidity, the materials, for every cubic meter of every planet. Our water actually flows downhill and puddles. It freezes overnight or during the winter. It evaporates and turns to steam when heated up. And not just our water — everything does this. Catch a tree on fire with a stray blaster bolt. Melt your way through a glacier to find a hidden alien laboratory embedded in the ice. Stomp too hard on a rock bridge, and watch out, it might collapse under your feet. Dam up a river to irrigate your farm. Or float in space above an asteroid, and mine crystals from its depths.

 That is a lofty goal and takes me back to memories of SWG.  For example; SWG had dynamic materials that could be gathered from the world.  There was an entire path for players that wanted to be nothing more than gatherers whereby they improved their ability to scan for and find materials.  That information could then be sold to others and it had value.  Why? Because the materials in that exact state with those exact variables were finite and once mined were gone forever.  Those materials then were used in blueprints that could only use those materials resulting in limited runs of items such as blasters and armor.  Materials gone?  So were those specific outputs.  The inner moisture farmer in me was jumping for joy.

 Stars Reach is aiming to take this level of dynamic world to another level and multiply it across a universe.  That has me super excited for what they bring forward as a game.