Black Prophecy - Pre-Open Beta Raves!
Click to viewThe above posted video is from a game I've been following for over a year now. This game started life as a possible pay-to-play game that changed course and headed for free-to-play when they finally found themselves a publisher. Some people might be familiar with gamigo by now, but not everybody has heard of them. Gamigo has offered their services as a publisher on the condition that they make their title free-to-play.
As you can see, Black Prophecy offers a lot of possibilities as far as a space-faring sci-fi action/adventure MMORPG. At the very least, it offers people with shallow pockets the chance to fly around in a universe without going broke at the same time. For those that loved the idea of Star Trek Online but not the price tag, this opens a few doors that were previously locked to them. It seems to offer much of the same content (minus ground combat, but who knows what's in store for the future of this game, right?) with possibly higher detail in the spacial environment.
Then again, Star Trek Online offered things with a bit too much in the way of ground combat that was clunky and, in many cases, rather uninteresting. The space battles in that game were also a little too easy (once the bugs were worked out of it (and I'm not saying that all of them were)). Black Prophecy seems (to me, at least) to offer something more along the lines of "It takes skill more than repetitious firing" to do what needs to be done. It also offers trading in space which, as far as I know, wasn't in STO. Of course, when comparing things I'm only talking about STO as far as the open beta capabilities. The finished product may offer a bit more, it may not.
Black Prophecy seems to reign supreme in a good many areas. Then again, I haven't gotten my code to participate in closed beta testing (they haven't gotten the updated specs of my computer, either, so it may be my own fault there).
When Black Prophecy finally opens up to the public in general, we may see over-loaded servers or we may see belly-aching individuals screaming for another space MMORPG to go pay-to-play for various reasons. Either way, MMOs are adopting more and more things from free-to-play games that generate more revenue above and beyond the subscription price. So, why not just try the free-to-play, enjoy the no-risk investment of some time downloading and installing and, if you like the game, paying for some sort of additional vanity items to support the title?
This gamer looks forward to a free-to-play space action/adventure MMORPG and BP shows the most promise out of all three titles I can think of at this point. Don't get me wrong, Cryptic is working their collective tails off when it comes to producing content for their game. Eve Online is also still chugging along out there somewhere... But, all in all, the market is a bit one-sided with this style of game. So, this title is most likely going to nab all the players looking for a universe devoid of magic-using elves and filled with debris drenched space without grubbing all of their hard earned dollars at the same time. If nothing else, people might just try this game out, yearn for subscriptions and give Cryptic the time of day. Others might seek to make the most out of Black Prophecy and make Reakktor a well known developer. I'm hoping for the latter, myself.
Keep up the good work Reakktor/Gamigo, those of us out here are counting on you!