Have you been keeping up on all these MMO’s being announced or picking up some face time while making the rounds on the usual sites?  I haven’t.  From the “meh” screenshots to the titles that make you simply wonder why, it’s borderline shovelware and mostly forgettable stuff.  I’m also seeing a lot of games being  “Adapted for the Western Market”.  Alarms should be going off in your head now *aroooga aroooga*.   Maybe I’m being close-minded, but I have to do a personal inventory here and ask myself whether or not I’ve ever played a game that was adapted for the Western market that I actually enjoyed or one that wasn’t ultimately a weak game.

It’s not all immediately forgettable.  A new publisher calling themselves En Masse announced themselves to the world yesterday.  When “veterans of the industry” come together forming a new company something big always happens.  It’s either a big success or a big failure and it’s always big fun to watch.  The first game being pushed out by En Masse is TERA.  Right from the press release we have a few interesting things to note.  I’m going to be very critical here.  Those with heart conditions should not ride.

1) “Working with Korean development partner Bluehole Studio, En Masse Entertainment is preparing to unveil next-generation MMORPG TERA™ to Western audiences…”

*Arooga Aroooga* Right?

2) “From day one at En Masse,” says Brian Knox, Senior Producer, “there’s been this palpable excitement about TERA.” … and I think you’ve got the recipe for something special in TERA.”

Brian Knox.  Let’s look him up under their ‘About Us’ section.  Ahhh yes.  He was the producer for Aion at NCsoft.  According to his Bio, “As Producer of Aion at NCsoft, Knox led the team that published the company’s first true Western title which became 2009’s largest and most anticipated MMO launch and secured dozens of industry awards and critical accolades.” Well, that’s not how -I- remember it.  Is that how you remember it?  In fact, if this is what En Masse considers a successful introduction of a game to the Western audience then can we expect that same accoladed success with TERA?

3) We’re given a quick ‘About TERA’.

TERA™ is a next-generation massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) set in a richly imagined fantasy universe. TERA ushers in a ground-breaking interactive combat system that allows you to respond instantly to real-time combat conditions. Unlike faction-based games, TERA unites players everywhere against truly dangerous foes: rampaging monsters, insidious demons, and the many horrors of a world torn apart by the gods.

Lots of hyperbole.  Sifting through it all we can glean a few things that, for someone who may not know anything about the game yet, might be key in helping decide if this is a game worth trying.  First thing that jumps out at me is “respond instantly to real-time combat conditions” which sounds wonderful in paper but in practice we’ve seen it be less than ideal.  Simply an interesting thing to note is that based on this description alone it doesn’t seem that PvP will doable.

Now, bottom line, I know I’m being overly critical.  I’m picking on TERA here perhaps a bit too much but I’m trying to get at something.  I don’t find Aion’s “Westernization” acceptable when all is said and done.  I’m also wanting to illustrate that if developers or publishers want to market their games accurately they need to change their current way of doing it.  That ‘About TERA’ does the game more harm than good.  It truly told us nothing about the actual game.

In my opinion the way in which these games are presented should be more straight forward.  That’s how I would handle the marketing for a MMO if it were my job to tell players what they can expect in my game.  What does it mean to be next-generation?  Justify it to us.  What is ground breaking about the interactive combat?  Explain to us how the real-time combat conditions differentiate your gameplay from that of a more traditional approach.  How does your game unite players everywhere?   That would be an awesome job in my opinion.  Be the guy who helps a company present their game to the players in such a way that they’re able to actually give real information while still getting players excited.  I think the same job could also facilitate having the company create a game that the players want.  Those two things are lacked universally in the industry.

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