Order and Chaos Online: WoW on an iPhone/iPad??Follow

I have long been fascinated by the shrinking size and increasing power of technology.

I wrote a thread on here a couple of years ago, at the advent of netbooks, musing how you could carry WoW *almost* in your pocket on one of these $250 computers. I was also amazed the other day when reading about Raspberry Pi, a $25 computer prototype the size of a USB key.

Now, a new game called Order and Chaos Online, by puclisher Gameleft, has grabbed my attention. It should first be said that Gameloft has achieved significant success ripping off console and PC games and shoehorning them onto mobile platforms: Eternal Legacy (Final Fantasy), Dungeon Hunter I and II (Diablo), Modern Combat (COD: Modern Warfare), Starfront: Collision (Starcraft), and many more. While it's easy to criticize them for being unoriginal, to their credit they have brought a number of games to iOS (and to a lesser extent, Android) that otherwise would likely never have made it there.

I should first mention that this is not a review. I have not purchased or played Order and Chaos Online, and I likely won't. Regardless of quality, I just can not see myself getting into an MMORPG on my iPhone. It makes even less sense when you realize you need a WiFi connection to play; OaC (look I abbreviated it!) does not work on 3G. At home, I always have the option of playing WoW, or another full size game.

Still, I feel a nagging from deep in my curious psyche to spend the $7 and purchase the game just for the novelty. It's a free-roaming, very VERY WoW-Clone-y game that seems, based on reviews and videos, to resemble Vanilla WoW: The only PvP elements are duels and meaningless world PvP, just like Vanilla. It's new, full of cool ideas, and rough around the edges, just like Vanilla. The big thing that differentiates it quite significantly from Vanilla is the lack of instances, although those have been promised in a future update.

The pricing for the game seems pretty reasonable at first glance - $7 for the game, and $1/mo (or $3 for 6 mo.). A closer look reveals a "pay-to-pwn" item store that, like many games these days, lets you buy in game buffs, pets, and to my dismay, gold. For me, personally, that is the point where I immediately realize I will never get into this game. I sure hope Blizzard never crosses this line, though I doubt they would as it would be a huge change to an already very successful business model.

Sitting back, and seeing it as a novelty, it's amazing to think that this game, with a polygon count far higher than PC MMORPGs from a decade ago, fits in a pocket. In fact, if you think about it, the current generation of smartphones and tablets have substantially better hardware than the original system requirements of WoW, which IIRC were approximately an 800 MHz P3 w/ 128 MB of RAM and a 32MB Radeon 7000 series (I could be a bit off, as this is from memory, but I am sure about the P3@800 part). In contrast, the iPhone4 has a 1GHz processor, 512MB of RAM (also used as video RAM) and a discreet graphics processor that easily bests low-to-mid-range desktop chips from 2004.

Blizzard has already jumped on the mobile-platform bandwagon with the excellent, feature-rich, monthly-subscription based Armory app. I don't subscribe to the premium features, but I always enjoy checking my auctions on the go. With guild chat and buy/sell features that allow you to interact with the game itself, it's obvious that Blizzard has been pondering the mobile platforms, and these early offerings which directly connect the game world to the outside world are surely leading towards something.

Earlier, I said I would be unlikely play an MMORPG on my iPhone at home where my PC can do the same job while offering so much more. I can also say with utter certainty that there will never be a mobile WoW client - the PC version is bigger than the total capacity of most smartphones, and there is just too much to possibly fit onto a 3-4" screen. But if we're lucky, we might someday see minigames, or a mini-version of WoW that somehow tied to your achievements/progress in the real game? Or something? I can dream...

I believe Order and Chaos Online will have an audience limited to kids without their own PC, and adults charmed by the novelty. Remember that it also works on the 4th gen iPod touch, and a lot of high school aged kids have those, and no PC of their own... The downsides ("pay-to-pwn" item shop, no 3G limiting you to your home where you have a PC, no instances or organized pvp, yet) outweigh the novelty, at least in my opinion. Be that as it may, it is a truly impressing feat that Gameloft pulled off. I hope their venture is successful, because I bet Blizzard, and other AAA game companies, are watching.




Edited, May 7th 2011 5:08pm by Jordster

That does look pretty cool. But if it's not available through 3G/4G then it's really not worth it. The whole point to me would be playing it on the go: in a car ride, on a train, or bus. I don't think people sit in wifi hot spots just to get on their iphone/pod/pad and play games.

The whole buying gold is definitely a no no, but it seems to be hugely popular among app games and it probably generates a lot of money. This probably isn't a very serious game, not meant to be balanced and what not, which means they are going to make a HUGE profit on people wanting to have the best characters out there.

Seattle is known as one of the top 'hotspots' for internet activity. Isn't that the town with free FiOs internet?
You get into any town smaller than, say, 400,000 and you find less and less reliable hotspots.

That's kind of what I'm thinking. I don't know of many people that are going to head to starbucks and camp out for a few hours to play an mmo on their phone/device. I know there are tons of hotspots out there but, for me, I would rather be able to play while traveling. It would definitely make for a great timer killer while waiting at the airport.

If they create the game to play on your pc and be able to like sync/link up your account so all your items and stuff is on your phone/device too then it might be a bit different because then you'll get the crowd playing it at home too. But that's a whole different spectrum.

I can see a game like this getting me in trouble at work. >.>

It does not really look half bad though for a tablet game it's pretty impressive. I do wonder how much trouble you can get for mining others assets though. I mean come on that bear is the exact same bear.

Technically you can play on your 9.7" screen too, since it's a universal app.

I don't think I could ever play a game more complicated than Bejeweled or solitaire on the go, especially on my iPhone. It'd be pretty terrible.

Also, I highly doubt 3G could support the kind of connection required to play a MMO at a decent speed.

The word on the Galaxy Tabs due out next month (both sizes) is that they'll be available with not only WiFi but also 3G/4G. The big seller for me is that they'll have USB ports for flash drive apps and for charging other toys like your phone, or whatever else folks use USB for these days.

Is there any way without a designated home or local server to play the same game of WOW on more than one PC (not simultaneously)? For example, could you install the game on a Flash drive and carry it from PC to PC?

How does that relate to the OP or thread? The Galaxy Tab looks like it's going to be the first proper competition (at least in terms of the quality of the hardware) for iPad2, but iPad2 (and iPad before it) were available with WiFi and 3G.


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Yes. But again, no relevance to thread ??

Based on the market shares, I doubt any Android-based tablet will compete with the iPad2's numbers for a long while.

But yeah, I agree with you Jord, the Galaxy Tabs topic doesn't relate to the thread (though it kind of relates to my derail).