MMO Weekly Page 2

16 Mar 2010 at 00:00:00 by Jeff Hollis

….And Back Again

This week also brings news of another MMO I thought was gone forever. Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising was a game that takes place in mythological Rome. So yes, you can fight Carthaginians, and then you can fight griffons and giants. The game was being developed by a company called Perpetual  Entertainment, and Perpetual had a lot of problems. Most significantly, these problems included wooing a never-ending stream of investors, and then not being able to bring any of their games to market. Later, they had other problems, which included being sued.

The funny thing about Perpetual is that Gods and Heroes was almost good enough to launch. Almost. I played the game at E3 a few years back, and it was actually quite fun. I had opportunity to speak to a long-time beta tester, and his opinion was that the big problems with the game were largely technical ones, and that Perpetual just wasn't doing much to solve them.

One of the big innovations of GH was the minion system, in which players could acquire warriors, priests, and various other characters as, basically, pets. These minions were subservient to your main character, but under the player's control. You know how, sometimes, you can't find a healer for your group? Not in GH. That priest minion of yours can now fill that role.

Not only was GH set in a different world (no elves living in the forest, etc), but the minion system was a huge selling point. At high level, you and a few buddies (if you had some of the tougher minions), could flesh out your own raid. It was a great idea.

Well, it seems that GH has now been purchased by a company called Heatwave Interactive. They've relaunched the website, and it seems they're moving forward with Gods and Heroes. My guess is that they'll rename it soon, polish it up, work out some of the kinks, add some content, and launch relatively soon. 2011? I'd love to see that happen, and it's within the realm of possibility.

It's been a quirky week: one MMO dies, and another rises again. I truly hope we see GH make it to release; that game held so much promise. And with that hope, I'm outta here.  I hope you enjoyed this little write-up, and I'll see you all next week. For now, ciao!

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