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Ultimate Baseball Online - Rise Of The MMOSG? 41

Posted by simoniker from the take-me-down-to-acronym-city dept.
Cobol Junky writes "Ultimate Baseball Online, a game claiming to be the first MMOSG (massively multiplayer online sports game) has recently transitioned into free Beta status. Each player's character takes a position on the baseball field, and can improve their skills and stats by gaining experience, just like a regular MMORPG. UBO is being created by NetAmin, the creators of an scrapped MMORPG called Fallen Age." This title has been in development for a while, and a GameSpot preview reveals more, but what other genres will get tarred by the massively multiplayer brush before long?
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Ultimate Baseball Online - Rise Of The MMOSG? More

Ultimate Baseball Online - Rise Of The MMOSG?

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  • Monthly Fees! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Naffer ( 720686 ) on Monday December 01, 2003 @04:30AM (#7596914) Journal
    Honestly, I hope they start charging monthly fees for this! I don't think enough games charge monthly fees! Maybe we can get people to charge monthly fees for offline games too!

    Seriously, I don't see enough of a market to justify a full scale MMO game. People log on and play everquest like there's nothing better in the world, but I have a hard time beliving that the type of people willing to play sports games would be dedicated enough to play them in an MMO format (which inevitably means monthly fees)

    • Re:Monthly Fees! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Goldberg's Pants ( 139800 ) on Monday December 01, 2003 @05:41AM (#7597103) Journal
      EA are heading toward a fee based system. If what I read is true, their matchmaking service, in NHL 2k4, you only get it for 3 months, then you gotta pay.

      I first read about UBO 2 years ago. It's been in beta for a while, and has been massively delayed, but I think it has great potential. There's a Japanese soccer game called Libero Grande where you can play as just one player on the field. It's a unique experience that is very rare. Being able to be just ONE player on a team... I think the idea has legs. As a baseball fan, I'm interested.

      The article I read years ago said players have virtual DNA, meaning you could be a future hall of famer, or you could be a minor league reject. It's not entirely within your control, just like life. Interesting concept.
      • yeah.. but if you play against 10 other real people on a just randomly organized game..
        what are the chances that somebody just decides to fuck it up or leave just in middle of a homerun.

        sure pre-organized games could go a lot better, but for the casual play that leads into you getting into some organized team and long time playing you'll need to have some fun on your own.
    • Are you joking? Sports nut, ESPN addicted folks would not want to play their favorite position on some online sports game? My guess is that many sports fans are really into competition (hmm, could this be true?).. and what's more fun that smoking the computer? Smoking another person. To top it off.. people get to specialize and focus on the particulars that interest them instead of focusing on every last detail. You get to have leaderboards with all these amazing statistical categories.. sacks, tackles

  • Nothing Special (Score:2, Insightful)

    by illuminata ( 668963 )
    It looks to me as if they're taking features that have been around in sports games for quite some time in single player mode and putting them online.

    Still, the game doesn't look all too good, and I fail to see exactly what makes this massively multiplayer. From what I can tell, you're still constrained to the field area. You can't roam the land trying to wrangle up teammates to find the perfect ballpark to call your own. Hell, there's even a player lobby, just like normal multiplayer games. To me, calling
    • IMHO I would think this is MMO because unlike most Multiplayer Sports games, you upgrade, level up, gain new skills, etc. OK, mebbe they should have kept the RPG and not the MMO but that's just semantics isn't it?

      Kleedrac
      • Upgrading, leveling up and gaining new skills doesn't make something Massively Multiplayer.

        If that were the case, I've been playing MMORPG's since 1987 or '88.
        • It is a MMOG because all information goes trhough the company's servers. Normal sports games, when played online, are hosted by one of the players, not the company that made the game. Hence the requiring of monthly fees and such.

  • MMO is way overblown (Score:3, Insightful)

    by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Monday December 01, 2003 @04:55AM (#7597010) Journal
    MMO is waaay overblown. Simple reason. There just aren't enough players. MMOGs take time to play. There just aren't enough people willing to devote a significant enough chunk of their life to a game. There are some, and they were enough to keep Ultima Online flush with players. There were even enough for Everquest as well. But there are now MMOGs coming out at an incredible clip, which keeps fragmenting the customers base further, and reducing the value of other competitors in the field. MMOGs are flopping left and right, and still publishers frantic for a pirate-resistant subscription model try to start new MMOGs.
    • There aren't enough players for baseball? Sports games stealing from Everquest?

      MMOG is not a genre. MMOG is a way of altering / improving a type of game. A Massively Multiplayer Street Fighter would draw the types of players that normally play Street Fighter games, not necessarily introducing RPG players to a different genre. MMP sports games are drawing from the Madden crowd... the 10% of people whose love for sports is matched by a love for fast internet connections.

      Would a MMP sports game take lon
  • This is great, MMORPGs bore me to tears! (Yes, I have tried plenty) Ive been waiting for something MMO-ish, but not in the usual Everquest/DAoC/Diablo 2 vein. This game sounds like it has lots of potential. Currently downloading, will know how good it is in about one hour or so :)
    • It seems to me many baseball fans would be more into being the manager of the team than a player. Being able to create a lineup, and 'strategize' during the game e.g. control when to bunt, hit-and-run, move around the fielders, etc.

      This stuff is a huge part of the game for real fans. I couldn't tell from a quick read of the review whether the game includes this sort of role.

      Jeneaux, after you get it running let us know if it includes anything like this.
      • It seems to me many baseball fans would be more into being the manager of the team than a player. Being able to create a lineup, and 'strategize' during the game e.g. control when to bunt, hit-and-run, move around the fielders, etc.

        A lot of strategy goes on for individual players, too. A good second-baseman knows where to stand based on the tendencies of the batter and the types of pitches his current pitcher likes to throw. (If he knows the catcher's signals, he can also mentally prepare for a grounde

      • I totally dissagree. Many baseball fans enjoy the sport not because of the strategy, but because they see amazing players doing amazing things (with a little help from their friendly pharmacist, but that's another issue). Imitation is a big drive for many gamers. Not to mention individual fame, especially in MMOGs.

  • Hop off the bandwagon, sheep (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 01, 2003 @07:17AM (#7597376)
    It's become fashionable to bash MMO's and just declare them the CB Radio of gaming, but this sounds fun and seems like a good idea. Controlling a whole team vs another guy controlling a whole team is an abstraction, this is truly a sports simulator, with team dynamics and personalities playing a huge role. Maybe the fat kids in school will get a little redemption.
  • Awesome! I can't wait to spend hours on end scouring the stadium, whacking rats with my +2 Baseball Bat of Slugging in order to level up my half-elf Second Baseman. ;)
  • The first Massively- Multiplayer online sport game Hooligans.
  • hmm, I like this idea. I've been a baseball fan for years, and remember playing some of the earliest sports games (on the intellivision, no less).

    Having a group of 18 sounds like fun, and if anyone leaves, dummy bot takes his place until someone else comes online.

    Gonna check it out once I get home.

  • Could actually work (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Mukaikubo ( 724906 )
    Guys, they're not going after the established MMO fanbase. They're going after the sports fans who want just a little more. Entirely different target demographics.

    That said, I hope someone does this with football so I could play it. I call tight end... Blocking is fun!
  • This title has been in development for a while, and a GameSpot preview reveals more, but what other genres will get tarred by the massively multiplayer brush before long?

    Please let it be Hockey! And soon! for GameCube? (ok I'm dreaming again... it's great being a fan of the #4 major sport and the #3 online console, I can tell you what...)

  • Snore (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Reapy ( 688651 ) on Monday December 01, 2003 @10:15AM (#7598258)
    Wow, this can now simulate how boring it is to play baseball. Maybe I'll get stuck in right field and the ball wont come in my direction the whole game. Sounds like fun, paying monthly fees to sit around like i'm playing baseball. Cmon people, if you love the game that much, go sign up for a league and play it for real? It's not like baseball is an unaccessable sport like football or hockey. Oh well, mmorpg on..
    • Wow, this can now simulate how boring it is to play baseball. That was my first reaction, too. Baseball is our national pass-time because so much damn time passes when you play/watch it. The thing that I always liked about baseball video games (I do like the game) is that you can cut to the chase of batting/pitching. You always get to do all the fun stuff. I can't imagine how fucking boring it would be to stand as a right fielder for inning after inning and NOT do anything. MMOs are just a way to make
    • I think the main problem is that nobody is going to select to be an outfielder, or third base, or any position that sees relativly little action. Everyone is going to create their character as a pitcher or short stop or first baseman, creating a major imbalance.

  • can you say.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by bigbigbison ( 104532 ) * on Monday December 01, 2003 @10:45AM (#7598466) Homepage
    ...Motor City Online? I predict that this will be jsut as successfull as Motor City Online. I think that, at least at this point, the relative failure of the Sims Online shows that MMO games jsut aren't for the mainstream yet.

    Certainly the game makers need to keep trying and I'm glad they are. Eventually something will hit the wall and stick with teh general public. However, I just don't see this as being it.

  • WE'RE THE FIRST!!! YEAH!!! REALLY!!! (Score:1, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Isn't this the same thing?

    From GameSpot dated April 23, 2003:

    Square Enix begins open alpha testing of Online Striker

    Square Enix's online soccer game is available for open testing in Japan.

    Square Enix has released a downloadable alpha version of its upcoming PC soccer game Online Striker. While Online Striker has been in open testing under its developer, Dingo, since late last year, this is the first time that its publisher, Square Enix, is opening the test to the public.

    Online Striker is an online socc

  • cant someone make a P2P MMOG? (Score:1, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    with bandwidth shared like bit-torrent...?
  • "But just like in real-life baseball games, the real showdown will be between the pitcher and the batter."

    Great...so now we're gonna have people camping the pitchers mound, and people TKing to pitch? Can the batters charge the mound? If they could, I'm sure this game would attract a large amount of CS players.

  • The Problem with MMOSGs... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by BTWR ( 540147 ) <americangibor3@ya[ ].com ['hoo' in gap]> on Monday December 01, 2003 @08:59PM (#7604902) Homepage Journal
    Here's the problem with MMOSG's...

    For example, take any team game. It's an excellent idea - 20 people each in a specialized position, playing like a real match. The problem is that, unlike when you're standing on the field, people will NOT have the patience to play correctly. You'll have fullbacks (defense guys in soccer) trying to score goals because they're bored, shortstops trying to catch a left-field popup (and messing up the play later), EVERYONE trying to shoot in basketball (no one, i predict, will want to be all-defensive).

    This may work, however, with interesting rules (like, for example, the goalie can't pull himself if he's bored since the puck is always on the other side... unless a majority of the team votes it).

    While on the subject, a manager/coach might be one of the most interesting positions in a MMOSG. They would pick who's on the ice (call line switches), pick the pass that the quarterback has to follow (or at least narrow it down to 2-3 options or quartback sneak), etc.

    So again, this could work work, could be amazing, but it's going to need some intelligent programming/rule-creating to make it fun.

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