Mundos Virtuales en Latinoamerica
Our remote correspondent Andrés Chilkowski says:
Just a quick report of Latin American MMO developments as Raph Requested!
Regnum Online (www.regnumonline.com.ar) – Argentina
3D Fantasy multiplatform MMORPG RVR-PVP + Quest Driven PVE.
As one of the developers of the game, I’m pretty proud on this one, so please Raph, check it out and share your comments with us. It will be a great honor to have you log into our game.
Argentum Online (ao.alkon.com.ar) – Argentina
2D Fantasy MMORPG Skill based very much like early UO with PVP.
As one of the first of its class in Spanish and having low hardware requirements, it grew into a sensational phenomenon reaching thousands of players. Both its server and client code are open source opening doors to MODs, TCs and Enhancements, and also helping to get many young people involved in game development.
Argentum Online 2 is its 3D incarnation and it’s still in very early in development.
Taikodom (www.taikodom.com.br) – Brazil
3D Action Based MMOG in Space.
An impressive looking Space Simulator in a virtual world. Still early in development, the game is undergoing a second tech test. They got some interesting investment from IBM (both financial and technical resources)
Erinia: (www.erinia.com.br) – Brazil
3D Fantasy MMORPG –- PVE Oriented.
After a rushed release as a P2P game and trying to switch into a F2P game, the project seems to be having commercial difficulties due to high competition with other international mainstream MMOs in Brazil.
Now, my two cents on the subject at hand: Even if I do believe that it will be easier in the future to create this kind of worlds, I would like to point out that this has not been the case so far with Latin American developments. The industry here is in its early infancy so, lacking in experience and the resources, working on any project of this magnitude was very much like re-inventing the wheel.
Budgets of less than a 100 thousand Dollars and teams as small as 8 people were the norm, and that meant missed opportunities to innovate, specially taking into account that we had to meet certain player expectations as pirated versions of L2, WOW and Ragnarok are quite popular in the regionAlthough games like Regnum may be lacking in amount of features, and might not represent the next true original thing in the field, I do feel however that there is something fresh about it and I think its because it’s less overdeveloped in terms of content and feels more real and more alive.
I’m tired of MMOGs that end up looking like another VDATP –Virtual Disney’s Animatronics Theme Park- where to grind. It’s time to put the focus back into player interaction and gameplay systems and that’s what we are trying to accomplish within the limited scope of our resources.
I do believe we have tons of passion for games and potential in terms of development down here. Feel free to check us out.
7 Responses to “Mundos Virtuales en Latinoamerica”
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I wanted to add that Regnum has a native linux client! (this is why im playing in the first place).
I think that it’s awesome because big players don’t give a rat’s bottom about any other platform and the others are left stranded.
Gracias Raph!!
Gee what can I say. thanks for posting this it’s been quite difficult for all of us to get some kind of international spotlight 🙂
let me use this medium to express my gratitude as Raph’s Laws where really like a bible to us in the design and development of Regnum Online.
Saludos desde Buenos Aires!
[…] que no lo conocen el fue el Lead Game Designer de juegos como Ultima Online y StarWars Galaxies. https://www.raphkoster.com/2007/05/30…latinoamerica/ […]
Its true, Regnum is the type of game that reminds players why they like these types of game so much. It marks a new level where players can join a true community where the people who play the game realize that this game is unlike the others. Perhaps it is because the community can talk to the developers on a regular basis through forums, whatever the reason, I am no longer shocked to hear players say that they like the game simply becuase it is something different, and once they try it, they keep playing. I can understand that, especially since that is what happened to me over a year ago.
[…] who this guy is, he was Lead Game Designer of games like Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies. https://www.raphkoster.com/2007/05/30…latinoamerica/ Regards Last edited by niclam : Yesterday at 09:59 […]
I recently started playing Regnum again after about a year of messing around with other MMOs and to be honest, I was surprised at how much the game has evolved. The player characters look great and the Direct X support makes for some of the best environments I have seen from an independant game company like this.
I can communicate with the programmers through the forum on the website and they seem very resposive to community feedback and suggestions. If people reading this haven’t tried this game it is totally worth a try .. and Ill see you either in my realm of Ignis or dead in your realm. 🙂
Ah-hah. Ask and ye shall receive!
I think it was Taikodom that the guy I interviewed was working on. (His departure probably didn’t help their schedule any.)