And how many people actually role play in these supposed "RPGs"? Is it even 10%?
This site covers MMOs in general from what I've seen, not MMORPGs specifically. It is MMORPG.com because they couldnt get the MMO.COM domain. Thats all.
There's a big social aspect to the web site planned as well as massively multiplayer online worlds where people RP running a city in a game.... hence its an MMORPG.
I cannot wait for this game. And its the online bits specifically i want to see.
It's a single player SimCity wannabe with optional online mode? Why is MMORPG supporting this? Tons of Sim games have online mode, it doesn't make them an MMO.
*shrugs* but really what difference does it make?If your not into it you don't really have to play it.
I mean let's pick our battles and getting news about a half way mmo just does not seem like an important battle to wage.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
It's a single player SimCity wannabe with optional online mode? Why is MMORPG supporting this? Tons of Sim games have online mode, it doesn't make them an MMO.
Cities XL has a different online component than you typical single player games. CXL's "planet offer" will have you interacting with other players on a player made planet of cities made by its users. You will need to interact and conduct commerce with other players to build special buildings or features which will only be availble to people subscribing to the "planet offer"
With all this comes the possibility of alliances or groups forming to support each other form a resource perspective.
CXL has quite a few features which are synonomous with your typcial MMO.
Sounds an awful lot like the space Sim in Spore subtract pirates, space combat, and habitats and such.
Build a planet full of buildings, share yourself to the world, make new buildings.... ????.... profit? Then what?
You can say that about any mmo. Build up your character's levels, get some new armor, do some raids....??? Make gold??? Then what?
Just because you don't like the genre doesn't make it less of a Massively Multiplayer Game. For the record, this is a game I would definitely never play, because it does sound pretty boring. But I wouldn't go as far as to say there's no point, as there's really no point in ANY game you play. The point is to have fun.
Exactly my point in the above post about us gamers and the battles we choose to wage my overall assessment of this game is it will suck and if not f2p won't even last but is it really worth rallying against?If it's not your cup o tea just move on to something that is and please mmo players let's focus our attentions on some of the egomaniacal devs we have out here ruining the industry with shady practices sub par p2p products and an overall lack of honesty when dealing with the public at large.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
You also aren't thinking of the many aspects of "city life" that would entail a load of work for someone "RPing" the mayor of a city. As you build your city you'll have to have a well rounded number of housing//business ratios. The number of citizens living in each house will be different. I'm sure that you'll be able to make different types of businesses that each have POSITIVE/NEGATIVE factors towards your city's financial status, pollution status, and how happy the town is in total. I don't know if town designs and distance traveled to work and all this is factored in, but there sure is a crap load of factors that I could think of before even jumping in to expect lookin at.. I still don't see me running around town as a single character or small platoon that would make it a roleplaying game though.
"What's up with this? I try to be a nice guy, all I ask for in return's help. When my plans work and ur crying, I'll be laffin!"
Sorry Kiddies but this isn't gonna be another wow, or space game. MMO = Massive Multiplayer Online RPG = Role Playing Game.
Cities XL even though how lame it might seem to you. It is going to have the choice to play either the single player version, or the Massive Multiplayer Online version. It is an RPG because you play the role of a mayor growing your city. L2 understand the definitions of words, before you spout of like some stupid noob who thinks he knows wtf he's talking about.
It's a MMO because servers will be persistent "worlds" in which you'll be able to select an avaiable place in it, trade with other cities and maybe even do other things with cities besides ranking, events, etc, like visit them.
There are pretty many games in which 99% of the things you do are instanced - ranging from dungeons to missions to PvP, and that being sometimes the majority of end game content. Those are still MMOs. MMOs aren't mostly huge zerg battles you know.
And are you seriously bashing a game for it being a city simulator? You'll probably be able to bash any fantasy game for being similar to other games, stop this stupid bashing for a game being similar to others, this is actually the first city builder game I will see with decent online features, heck, its a MMO, and it's inovative to see one city builder calling itself a MMO.
You also aren't thinking of the many aspects of "city life" that would entail a load of work for someone "RPing" the mayor of a city. As you build your city you'll have to have a well rounded number of housing//business ratios. The number of citizens living in each house will be different. I'm sure that you'll be able to make different types of businesses that each have POSITIVE/NEGATIVE factors towards your city's financial status, pollution status, and how happy the town is in total. I don't know if town designs and distance traveled to work and all this is factored in, but there sure is a crap load of factors that I could think of before even jumping in to expect lookin at.. I still don't see me running around town as a single character or small platoon that would make it a roleplaying game though.
Who the hell ever said that RPG's just consist of "single characters running around, or RTS style platoon"? An RPG by definition, is a game that involves people pretending to be their favorite characters. If you played a game where you were pretending to be John, you'd be playing a Role Playing Game. So in this game you'd be pretending to be mayor quimby per say. Thus you'd be playing an RPG.
It's a single player SimCity wannabe with optional online mode? Why is MMORPG supporting this? Tons of Sim games have online mode, it doesn't make them an MMO.
Cities XL has a different online component than you typical single player games. CXL's "planet offer" will have you interacting with other players on a player made planet of cities made by its users. You will need to interact and conduct commerce with other players to build special buildings or features which will only be availble to people subscribing to the "planet offer"
With all this comes the possibility of alliances or groups forming to support each other form a resource perspective.
CXL has quite a few features which are synonomous with your typcial MMO.
Sounds an awful lot like the space Sim in Spore subtract pirates, space combat, and habitats and such.
Build a planet full of buildings, share yourself to the world, make new buildings.... ????.... profit? Then what?
You can say that about any mmo. Build up your character's levels, get some new armor, do some raids....??? Make gold??? Then what?
Just because you don't like the genre doesn't make it less of a Massively Multiplayer Game. For the record, this is a game I would definitely never play, because it does sound pretty boring. But I wouldn't go as far as to say there's no point, as there's really no point in ANY game you play. The point is to have fun.
Exactly my point in the above post about us gamers and the battles we choose to wage my overall assessment of this game is it will suck and if not f2p won't even last but is it really worth rallying against?If it's not your cup o tea just move on to something that is and please mmo players let's focus our attentions on some of the egomaniacal devs we have out here ruining the industry with shady practices sub par p2p products and an overall lack of honesty when dealing with the public at large.
So you mean they should be making more threads about how much Darkfall sucks? I kinda like a change with this site, tired of the old Darkfall flames.
pretending you're the Mayor of a city.. sounds like Roleplay to me..
ya know everyone cries about how companies should try new things.. yet when they do the masses start vomiting the latest line they read from the last little lemming that posted..
is this the traditional fantasy mmo model.. no.. this is what SimCity should have been if EA hadn't eaten up the franchise.. its different and fun in a different way..
There is a difference between a game with multiplayer elements and an MMO.
This game will NOT have thousands of players playing together, they are misrepresenting how the game works.
My main objection is not to this game, since I actually love city building games. My objection is the continued back handers certain websites take to allow almost anything to gain column space, and then try to justify it with some lame excuse.
But by all means allow the crap to continue, within a year you will have trouble finding that news on "WoW or EQ" because this whole site will be full of mainstream big money companies buying front page space and rankings with cold hard cash, and drowning out the real MMORPGs.
Soon we will see an announcement with excuses of diversification from normal MMORPG games to provide the members a more rounded look at games in general.
If I want news on mainstream stuff I will go to the sites that can do that and do it better.
This game will NOT have thousands of players playing together
According to the game's description, yes, it will. You can claim they are lying, but at this point I would say they know more about their own game than you do.
My main objection is not to this game, since I actually love city building games. My objection is the continued back handers certain websites take to allow almost anything to gain column space, and then try to justify it with some lame excuse.
Well, if this site covers MMOs and not just MMORPGs (and I think it does) then this game belongs on this site.
But by all means allow the crap to continue, within a year you will have trouble finding that news on "WoW or EQ" because this whole site will be full of mainstream big money companies buying front page space and rankings with cold hard cash, and drowning out the real MMORPGs.
This site has been pimping F2P games for years, and yet the most activity is in the Eve, WOW and EQ areas. So I dont see your predictions coming true any time soon. This site is not hurt in any way with an occasional focus on games like CitiesXL.
If I want news on mainstream stuff I will go to the sites that can do that and do it better.
pretending you're the Mayor of a city.. sounds like Roleplay to me..
By that line of thinking though, Halo and Grand Theft Auto 4 are also RPGs because you're roleplaying a single character.
"Role Playing Game" is a term that implies certain character-building and storyline game mechanics that aren't here.
CitiesXL is no more an RPG than Command and Conquer, and compared to other MMOs, it's only marginally "massively multiplayer", having more "MMO Elements" than being an MMO. But it's about as much an MMO as you can make a city builder without losing focus on the actual city building.
I'm interested in seeing how the mechanics play out.
Why not just make new subcatagories for MMO games? is it really that hard to do something new?
MMO - any game with an online element where a player can interact with a large number of other players in real time (100+ is a good limiter for the massive definition).
Subcatagories:
MMORPG: any MMO where the intent is for the player to play a single avatar which can increase in personal power (through equipment, level, skills, etc) and progress through a story line (missions, quests, etc).
MMOFPS: any MMO where the intent is for the player to attack and kill other players. player avatar progression is not the main focus and is done through temporary power ups and missions or quests are non-existant or rare.
MMORTS: any MMO where the player controls an army or individual units and there is no personal avatar (or the avatar is some kind of general or leader for the army). the army is not made up of other player avatars.
MMOSIM: any MMO where the player is controlling and building a simulation of some kind. the intent of the game is to build and create while trading with others for mutual growth and expansion. Destruction and battles are non-existant and would be in opposition to the main pupose of the game.
so, if we do this, we can see that CitiesXL should be a MMOSIM. would this make people happy? by all means add to the list and expand on the definitions. give examples too. we have an opportunity here to start a new trend. lets create, not destroy.
as for MMORPG.com, that is the title of a website, not a category heading. If they changed the name of the website to PurpleRainMoonStar.com it would have exactly the same meaning as MMORPG.com. Its just a name people.
By that line of thinking though, Halo and Grand Theft Auto 4 are also RPGs because you're roleplaying a single character.
If you are playing a role, then yes, they are RPGs. IMO, those are not RPGs because you are not really playing a role...you are just using an avatar to blow stuff up or whatever. There is no character beyond that.
CitiesXL is no more an RPG than Command and Conquer
Command and Conquor doesnt involve making something unique. There is no character. It is an elaborate version of chess.
and compared to other MMOs, it's only marginally "massively multiplayer"
Why marginally? If the claims are true, it is as massive as any EQ server.
MMO - any game with an online element where a player can interact with a large number of other players in real time (100+ is a good limiter for the massive definition).
IMO, it should be at least 1000. Freelancer servers allowed for 100 players per, and I dont consider those true MMOs.
as for MMORPG.com, that is the title of a website, not a category heading.
As someone who's been playing in the beta for (I guess it's been) a couple weeks now, I don't think I understand why this wouldn't be considered an MMO. Back in the early MMO games, the 'normal' multiplayer games that I recall were all maxed at maybe 16 or 32 payers when Ultima Online and Everquest really started to break open the MMO space. I don't know what line people draw for themselves when they define something as MMO or not, but this seems 'massive' enough to me to fit the description. On the RPG subject, if this isn't an MMORPG becuase you are a 'mayor' with a 3D toon, then I'm not sure how Eve would be one either since you're really basically a spaceship with a 2D portrait behind them, at least until they roll out the Walking-In-Stations deal...
From my experience so far, CitiesXL looks to be a unique offering in the current MMO space, and the ability to trade with other players for needed or excess resources looks to be promising. I've never really gotten into City Sims before, but am enjoying my time in CitiesXL and plan to subscribe to it at luanch. I look forward to seeing what else they are planning to add as the beta continues. It's a nice change from the standard MMO fare.
It's a MMO because servers will be persistent "worlds" in which you'll be able to select an avaiable place in it, trade with other cities and maybe even do other things with cities besides ranking, events, etc, like visit them.
The details of the above are really he heart of this question, IMHO. How much do players really interact? Will they be visiting eachother's cities as part of normal gameplay? In every MMO I know of, even if you don't make any effort to interact, you still see other players doing their own thing. Even as a loner, you're not entirely isolated. To me, that's what makes an MMO an MMO. Not a few options that involve interaction, but being amidst lots of other players.
I've been following this game for a while now, as I do like the city building genre, but I'm having trouble imagining how it will feel like an MMO. Maybe I'm missing something. And in case it doesn't go without saying, my concern is with the monthly fee (not its place on mmorpg.com), if it feels like a single player game that might as well be saving to my hard drive and not a persistent world that I don't see much of, outside my own city.
To reiterate, I guess I'm asking, how much do players really experience eachother's existence in this game?
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Comments
As far as I know this site is called mmoRPG.com
And how many people actually role play in these supposed "RPGs"? Is it even 10%?
This site covers MMOs in general from what I've seen, not MMORPGs specifically. It is MMORPG.com because they couldnt get the MMO.COM domain. Thats all.
Your RP'ing a Mayor / King / Whatever.
There's a big social aspect to the web site planned as well as massively multiplayer online worlds where people RP running a city in a game.... hence its an MMORPG.
I cannot wait for this game. And its the online bits specifically i want to see.
*shrugs* but really what difference does it make?If your not into it you don't really have to play it.
I mean let's pick our battles and getting news about a half way mmo just does not seem like an important battle to wage.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
Cities XL has a different online component than you typical single player games. CXL's "planet offer" will have you interacting with other players on a player made planet of cities made by its users. You will need to interact and conduct commerce with other players to build special buildings or features which will only be availble to people subscribing to the "planet offer"
With all this comes the possibility of alliances or groups forming to support each other form a resource perspective.
CXL has quite a few features which are synonomous with your typcial MMO.
Sounds an awful lot like the space Sim in Spore subtract pirates, space combat, and habitats and such.
Build a planet full of buildings, share yourself to the world, make new buildings.... ????.... profit? Then what?
You can say that about any mmo. Build up your character's levels, get some new armor, do some raids....??? Make gold??? Then what?
Just because you don't like the genre doesn't make it less of a Massively Multiplayer Game. For the record, this is a game I would definitely never play, because it does sound pretty boring. But I wouldn't go as far as to say there's no point, as there's really no point in ANY game you play. The point is to have fun.
Exactly my point in the above post about us gamers and the battles we choose to wage my overall assessment of this game is it will suck and if not f2p won't even last but is it really worth rallying against?If it's not your cup o tea just move on to something that is and please mmo players let's focus our attentions on some of the egomaniacal devs we have out here ruining the industry with shady practices sub par p2p products and an overall lack of honesty when dealing with the public at large.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
well i would go as far as saying its a mmorpg its more of a omrpg > online multiplayer rpg <
Why do people assume anything thats an mmo must be an mmorpg.
this is a city builder mmo, not an mmorpg.
EDITl: Ohh
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
This is all very true, but then it should not be on this site. After all, this is mmoRPG.com !
EDIT: Ohh Ohh! *wink*
You are role playing the mayor of a city. That = MMORPG. Thuh end.
You also aren't thinking of the many aspects of "city life" that would entail a load of work for someone "RPing" the mayor of a city. As you build your city you'll have to have a well rounded number of housing//business ratios. The number of citizens living in each house will be different. I'm sure that you'll be able to make different types of businesses that each have POSITIVE/NEGATIVE factors towards your city's financial status, pollution status, and how happy the town is in total. I don't know if town designs and distance traveled to work and all this is factored in, but there sure is a crap load of factors that I could think of before even jumping in to expect lookin at.. I still don't see me running around town as a single character or small platoon that would make it a roleplaying game though.
"What's up with this? I try to be a nice guy, all I ask for in return's help. When my plans work and ur crying, I'll be laffin!"
Sorry Kiddies but this isn't gonna be another wow, or space game. MMO = Massive Multiplayer Online RPG = Role Playing Game.
Cities XL even though how lame it might seem to you. It is going to have the choice to play either the single player version, or the Massive Multiplayer Online version. It is an RPG because you play the role of a mayor growing your city. L2 understand the definitions of words, before you spout of like some stupid noob who thinks he knows wtf he's talking about.
It's a MMO because servers will be persistent "worlds" in which you'll be able to select an avaiable place in it, trade with other cities and maybe even do other things with cities besides ranking, events, etc, like visit them.
There are pretty many games in which 99% of the things you do are instanced - ranging from dungeons to missions to PvP, and that being sometimes the majority of end game content. Those are still MMOs. MMOs aren't mostly huge zerg battles you know.
And are you seriously bashing a game for it being a city simulator? You'll probably be able to bash any fantasy game for being similar to other games, stop this stupid bashing for a game being similar to others, this is actually the first city builder game I will see with decent online features, heck, its a MMO, and it's inovative to see one city builder calling itself a MMO.
Who the hell ever said that RPG's just consist of "single characters running around, or RTS style platoon"? An RPG by definition, is a game that involves people pretending to be their favorite characters. If you played a game where you were pretending to be John, you'd be playing a Role Playing Game. So in this game you'd be pretending to be mayor quimby per say. Thus you'd be playing an RPG.
Cities XL has a different online component than you typical single player games. CXL's "planet offer" will have you interacting with other players on a player made planet of cities made by its users. You will need to interact and conduct commerce with other players to build special buildings or features which will only be availble to people subscribing to the "planet offer"
With all this comes the possibility of alliances or groups forming to support each other form a resource perspective.
CXL has quite a few features which are synonomous with your typcial MMO.
Sounds an awful lot like the space Sim in Spore subtract pirates, space combat, and habitats and such.
Build a planet full of buildings, share yourself to the world, make new buildings.... ????.... profit? Then what?
You can say that about any mmo. Build up your character's levels, get some new armor, do some raids....??? Make gold??? Then what?
Just because you don't like the genre doesn't make it less of a Massively Multiplayer Game. For the record, this is a game I would definitely never play, because it does sound pretty boring. But I wouldn't go as far as to say there's no point, as there's really no point in ANY game you play. The point is to have fun.
Exactly my point in the above post about us gamers and the battles we choose to wage my overall assessment of this game is it will suck and if not f2p won't even last but is it really worth rallying against?If it's not your cup o tea just move on to something that is and please mmo players let's focus our attentions on some of the egomaniacal devs we have out here ruining the industry with shady practices sub par p2p products and an overall lack of honesty when dealing with the public at large.
So you mean they should be making more threads about how much Darkfall sucks? I kinda like a change with this site, tired of the old Darkfall flames.
this game reminds me of the 3d version of Starpeace which was at one point being made
and yes starpeace is still around ^^
Sorry but this is NOT an MMO by ANY normally accepted standard definition.
MMORPG you are playing a very dangerous game here which will bite you in the ass in the long term.
Don't play us for fools and keep this site genre specific only, your getting big headed again just like the RMT adverts.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Sorry but this is NOT an MMO by ANY normally accepted standard definition.
It is Massive, Multiplayer, and Online (Persistent world). Explain how that is not an MMO.
MMORPG you are playing a very dangerous game here which will bite you in the ass in the long term.
Wow, exaggerate much? heh heh
So you are going to stop coming here for your WoW or EQ news simply because they report stuff about MMOs you dont like? Yeah right.
Don't play us for fools and keep this site genre specific only
If MMOs are the Genre, this game qualifies. There are thousands of players on the server and their actions all affect each other. That = MMO.
It is more an MMO than an RPG.
pretending you're the Mayor of a city.. sounds like Roleplay to me..
ya know everyone cries about how companies should try new things.. yet when they do the masses start vomiting the latest line they read from the last little lemming that posted..
is this the traditional fantasy mmo model.. no.. this is what SimCity should have been if EA hadn't eaten up the franchise.. its different and fun in a different way..
and yes.. it is a MMORPG
There is a difference between a game with multiplayer elements and an MMO.
This game will NOT have thousands of players playing together, they are misrepresenting how the game works.
My main objection is not to this game, since I actually love city building games. My objection is the continued back handers certain websites take to allow almost anything to gain column space, and then try to justify it with some lame excuse.
But by all means allow the crap to continue, within a year you will have trouble finding that news on "WoW or EQ" because this whole site will be full of mainstream big money companies buying front page space and rankings with cold hard cash, and drowning out the real MMORPGs.
Soon we will see an announcement with excuses of diversification from normal MMORPG games to provide the members a more rounded look at games in general.
If I want news on mainstream stuff I will go to the sites that can do that and do it better.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
This game will NOT have thousands of players playing together
According to the game's description, yes, it will. You can claim they are lying, but at this point I would say they know more about their own game than you do.
My main objection is not to this game, since I actually love city building games. My objection is the continued back handers certain websites take to allow almost anything to gain column space, and then try to justify it with some lame excuse.
Well, if this site covers MMOs and not just MMORPGs (and I think it does) then this game belongs on this site.
But by all means allow the crap to continue, within a year you will have trouble finding that news on "WoW or EQ" because this whole site will be full of mainstream big money companies buying front page space and rankings with cold hard cash, and drowning out the real MMORPGs.
This site has been pimping F2P games for years, and yet the most activity is in the Eve, WOW and EQ areas. So I dont see your predictions coming true any time soon. This site is not hurt in any way with an occasional focus on games like CitiesXL.
If I want news on mainstream stuff I will go to the sites that can do that and do it better.
Then why are you on here?
By that line of thinking though, Halo and Grand Theft Auto 4 are also RPGs because you're roleplaying a single character.
"Role Playing Game" is a term that implies certain character-building and storyline game mechanics that aren't here.
CitiesXL is no more an RPG than Command and Conquer, and compared to other MMOs, it's only marginally "massively multiplayer", having more "MMO Elements" than being an MMO. But it's about as much an MMO as you can make a city builder without losing focus on the actual city building.
I'm interested in seeing how the mechanics play out.
Why not just make new subcatagories for MMO games? is it really that hard to do something new?
MMO - any game with an online element where a player can interact with a large number of other players in real time (100+ is a good limiter for the massive definition).
Subcatagories:
MMORPG: any MMO where the intent is for the player to play a single avatar which can increase in personal power (through equipment, level, skills, etc) and progress through a story line (missions, quests, etc).
MMOFPS: any MMO where the intent is for the player to attack and kill other players. player avatar progression is not the main focus and is done through temporary power ups and missions or quests are non-existant or rare.
MMORTS: any MMO where the player controls an army or individual units and there is no personal avatar (or the avatar is some kind of general or leader for the army). the army is not made up of other player avatars.
MMOSIM: any MMO where the player is controlling and building a simulation of some kind. the intent of the game is to build and create while trading with others for mutual growth and expansion. Destruction and battles are non-existant and would be in opposition to the main pupose of the game.
so, if we do this, we can see that CitiesXL should be a MMOSIM. would this make people happy? by all means add to the list and expand on the definitions. give examples too. we have an opportunity here to start a new trend. lets create, not destroy.
as for MMORPG.com, that is the title of a website, not a category heading. If they changed the name of the website to PurpleRainMoonStar.com it would have exactly the same meaning as MMORPG.com. Its just a name people.
By that line of thinking though, Halo and Grand Theft Auto 4 are also RPGs because you're roleplaying a single character.
If you are playing a role, then yes, they are RPGs. IMO, those are not RPGs because you are not really playing a role...you are just using an avatar to blow stuff up or whatever. There is no character beyond that.
CitiesXL is no more an RPG than Command and Conquer
Command and Conquor doesnt involve making something unique. There is no character. It is an elaborate version of chess.
and compared to other MMOs, it's only marginally "massively multiplayer"
Why marginally? If the claims are true, it is as massive as any EQ server.
MMO - any game with an online element where a player can interact with a large number of other players in real time (100+ is a good limiter for the massive definition).
IMO, it should be at least 1000. Freelancer servers allowed for 100 players per, and I dont consider those true MMOs.
as for MMORPG.com, that is the title of a website, not a category heading.
Exactly.
As someone who's been playing in the beta for (I guess it's been) a couple weeks now, I don't think I understand why this wouldn't be considered an MMO. Back in the early MMO games, the 'normal' multiplayer games that I recall were all maxed at maybe 16 or 32 payers when Ultima Online and Everquest really started to break open the MMO space. I don't know what line people draw for themselves when they define something as MMO or not, but this seems 'massive' enough to me to fit the description. On the RPG subject, if this isn't an MMORPG becuase you are a 'mayor' with a 3D toon, then I'm not sure how Eve would be one either since you're really basically a spaceship with a 2D portrait behind them, at least until they roll out the Walking-In-Stations deal...
From my experience so far, CitiesXL looks to be a unique offering in the current MMO space, and the ability to trade with other players for needed or excess resources looks to be promising. I've never really gotten into City Sims before, but am enjoying my time in CitiesXL and plan to subscribe to it at luanch. I look forward to seeing what else they are planning to add as the beta continues. It's a nice change from the standard MMO fare.
The details of the above are really he heart of this question, IMHO. How much do players really interact? Will they be visiting eachother's cities as part of normal gameplay? In every MMO I know of, even if you don't make any effort to interact, you still see other players doing their own thing. Even as a loner, you're not entirely isolated. To me, that's what makes an MMO an MMO. Not a few options that involve interaction, but being amidst lots of other players.
I've been following this game for a while now, as I do like the city building genre, but I'm having trouble imagining how it will feel like an MMO. Maybe I'm missing something. And in case it doesn't go without saying, my concern is with the monthly fee (not its place on mmorpg.com), if it feels like a single player game that might as well be saving to my hard drive and not a persistent world that I don't see much of, outside my own city.
To reiterate, I guess I'm asking, how much do players really experience eachother's existence in this game?
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.