MMO98 Reviews

I wish steam had a "mixed" Played the demo, honestly there really wasnt much of a difference between the full game and the demo. For one its really really short and none of the upgrades change how you play the game fundementally, the automated debugger is nice but the fact the game is so short is kind of insane. Its an idler with very little unique elements. I think using the games as a way to have more sinks and elements that change how it plays out would be cool like spin offs that generate less data but more money as a inter game element, leveled upgrades so you can scale into insane numbers, checkboxe's like what elements a game will have that change modifiers like making it F2P which would remove income on sale but MASSIVELY increases player count and MTX elements meaning its more of a a way that gives you more true fans and later life cycle income, but the down side is managing early game player counts with less money. Or perhaps stuff like "insane graphics" which generate more early hype but introduce far more bugs. Or "action combat" that increases hype massively but increases development costs and strains your networking more. Stuff like that to change up the game would go a long way as it is the game just feels underbaked.

It's a fun game, and that's what matters to me. No gamebreaking bugs or anything. Finished it with full achievements in 7 hours, and I think this is the sweet spot. If it continued any further, it may not have been ideal.

[h2] Nice aesthetics, but not much else under the hood [/h2] I'm a big fan of incremental and simulator games and own quite a great deal of them. I was drawn to MMO98 by its aesthetic and premise, however as other reviewers have pointed out, the game really doesn't do anything to actually connect with its trappings. [h2] From Zero to Game Dev Hero [/h2] The premise is you've started an indie game studio (implied to be out of your garage by the gnome who won't actually leave you alone even if you disable him) with the goal of creating the number one MMO in the world. Beyond advising you that's your goal, you don't have any gameplay systems that make you feel the premise is more than just the aesthetic and the back of the box description. You name your game, pick one of around 10 pieces of box art (neither has an impact, though of course it would add layers of complexity to have to have that factor in), and...that's it. Nothing else in the experience ties into you actually trying to make a hit game. Once you name your game and pick your box art, you release it and from then you have to manage buying servers to handle load and clicking on bits of code that are glitchy to minimize bugs. Every so often you spend a large sum to do another "pass" on the quality of the game, which is just you clicking the money button and waiting. You're told you need to be ready to release a sequel for when the sales of your game dries up, only the sales never dried up for me. The real reason you want to release a sequel is because there are two or three modifiers that will increase how many fans you start the next game with which in turn makes it quicker to earn money. You're told you need to react to trolls and other bad actors in your game, only you can't, there's no way to actually interact even though the gnome tells you that you need to and chat complains about cheaters. You're told you need to be sensitive to player feedback to make your next game better, only there's nothing to interact with or change. There are two skill trees, one that resets every time you release a new game until you buy the perk to make it persistent, and one where you have persistent upgrades that amount to making money faster and reducing how often you have to squash bugs. Beyond that, there's really nothing to the game, and within the first couple of minutes you've experienced everything it has to offer. [h2] But isn't this an idle game? What were you expecting? [/h2] Here's the thing: the idle games and incremental games that set themselves apart from the rest are the ones that offer more than a nostalgic aesthetic. There's a connective tissue under the hood that ties the art and sound design to the premise, and generally offers an addictive loop that keeps you going "...just one more round...", and that's what MMO98 is missing. In most themed incremental and/or idle games, you have a variety of systems you're meant to engage with. Titles like Chef Knight, Fishing Inc., Voidloop, and Dragon Ruins are more the incremental with idle than the idle with incremental, but there are other titles like Dragon Cliff, Weapon Shop Fantasy, most Kairosoft games, Swag and Sorcery, Idle Slayer, Skeleseller, Soda Dungeon 2, and more that have gameplay systems that tie into the theme they're built around. MMO98 could have offered systems such as: - Starting with low poly graphics and building your studio to offer more cutting edge visuals in your game - Working to hire better and better composers for the soundtrack of your game - Building out expansions for your title and reacting to player feedback for what they want to see in them - Adding features like content packs with new classes, skill tree overhauls, and more - Having to worry about rival studios in the industry - Adapting to new operating systems, hacking attempts, managing employees and their satisfaction There are a lot of idler and incremental systems the game could have had, but what you get instead is click the button to trigger automated development passes, click the button to make bugs go away, click the button to add more servers, and that's the whole experience. [h2] Did any positives stand out? [/h2] - The aesthetic is nice, though with the layout you don't really get to appreciate it. - You can play solitaire which is neat, but only draw three which is less neat. - There's minesweeper. I'm absolutely terrible at it, so I never touched it, but it's out there for anyone who wants to play it. - The music is really pretty, nice intersect of vaporwave and dreamcore. [h2] But I mean, it's only $7 [/h2] Yes, but, most idler and incremental games are under ten dollars, so that's not really a factor in this review. I do think the dev has an interesting foundation they can build on here, it's just that for the time being, the full release feels like something that ought to be a demo for a more robust experience. I do wish them all the best though, and if they come back and add more, I'd be more than willing to revisit this review. For the time being, however, I have to recommend picking up the soundtrack and checking out other titles in the genre in the interim.

This game is phenomenally fun if you liked tycoon games growing up and lived in a win98 (or earlier) world. Negative reviews seem to center on how well this game plays in the idler genre. I don't normally play idle games and I don't care about how well this executes that space. What this does do is take me way back to the days of EQ, LAN gaming centers, Rollercoaster Tycoon, and tinkering with my computer builds to get an extra 24 MHz of overclock. If you want to scratch that itch too, this is a great way to do it for an hour here and there.

I wasn't expecting much but honestly I really like the game. At first I was like "Oh. How comes NGU doesn't go up more? Why am I clicking things but number doesn't go up faster?" Then I realised little things here and there I was doing wrong and it started to 'click' with me. If you're expecting an Mmo it isn't. It's a incremental idler/clicker game (think game dev hero but you're specifically making MMO's). Anyways, I like it and am playing it now even though I'm not actually playing it if you get what I mean 😉. Good job guys.

I find myself spending an unhealthy amount of time on this game, great for the price, watch number go up - wish there was a little more variety in randomised cover art, item names and game names

Don't get how this game has mixed reviews it is super fun and I don't even play incremental games!

I've played quite a few clickers / idlers, and would say this deserves a bit more credit than quite a lot of reviews give it. I bought it after the Service Pack 2 update, which maybe changed things quite a bit, but the pacing felt quite good and for the price the amount of content felt great. My only gripe is a game breaking bug I ran into by not clicking an email before saving and exiting the game. The only way to get around that is to either start a new game, or patching your save file to unset a flag so the game can pick it back up. So if you're reading this before playing it - just keep that in mind in case the bug still exists when you play :)

This was just okay, I actually think the game is fine - just difficult for me to truly recommend. I enjoy the aesthetic here, and the overall idea behind the game - very reminiscient of Game Dev Tycoon. I think for me the problems stem from: - Aside from the Windows 98 vibes, there isn't much to make it feel like you're managing a classic MMO, or truly tying it to that theme. - Every time you release a new title you start from scratch and don't carry over your upgrades, which means you have to repeat a lot of gameplay again just to start truly feeling your growth. - The gameplay mechanics for maintaining the MMO can feel shallow and repetitive - yes there is automation for them but I feel it takes a bit too long to build into it properly.

Why is this on Steam again? Seems super undercooked, kept waiting for the gameplay I looked for the demo to try first but it seems they removed it, probably cause if most of the same content