EGM, in celebration of their 200th issue, have published an article listing “The Greatest 200 Videogames of Their Time”. In actuality, it’s pretty much a list of the greatest videogames of all time. since it even includes Pong (number ten).
Now, before I go on, I have to say that I love lists, and most of the time it’s not because I agree with them. Lists, whether they are all-time lists, year-end lists, or whatever, are made for a couple reasons: one, to acknowledge a particular person’s or party’s favorites; two, to give credit to the people responsible for creating said favorites; but primarily three, to create controversy and inspire conversation. Lists are opinions, whether it’s of one single person or a compilation of people, and just like all other opinions, everyone has ‘em, and they’re all different. Even people with the same opinion can discuss their particular points and reasons for days on end. Talk radio is based on this premise. People want to be heard.
Saying all that, EGM definitely was heard with their Greatest 200 list. My point is not to challenge the entire list, or even replicate the list in any way, but to give kudos for giving credit to a game I was afraid would be overlooked as time went on. This game is Phantasy Star Online, for the Sega Dreamcast, ranked at a surprising #21 on the list.
PSO was released on the Dreamcast back in 2001, and it was memorable for several reasons. One, it was a classic Sega franchise making its next-generation debut. Two, it was resurrected by Yuji Naka and Team Sonic, which seemed to strike gold with every franchise they touched. But three, and probably most notable, it was the first, or at least one of the first, true console MMORPGs to hit a very infant market. Modern MMORPGs (excluding MUDs) had been successful for at least a few years on the PC, the most popular being Everquest, but consoles lacked the infrastructure, or even the hardware, to support online gaming. Enter the Dreamcast, with its built-in modem adapter and optional broadband adapter; and the online service SegaNet. One can argue the Dreamcast was made for PSO, or vice versa, but any way you spin it, they were a match made in heaven.
PSO had a few interesting aspects which are now commonplace in online gaming. First is the lobby system. Players can guide their avatars around any of the several available servers (divided by geographic location, but players are free to roam on any of them) and chat with any of the players in order to organize a party for a quest. Now, I mentioned geographic location because this is very integral to the game’s experience. PSO had a universal chat system using pre-defined statements that could be translated into any of the game’s supported languages. That means, you could carry on a conversation with someone in Japan with little difficulty, where both players would use their native language to communicate. So, when I would chat, a chat bubble would pop up in my language. On the other end, that bubble would pop up in that player’s native language. Although the statements were pre-defined, there was still a large selection, all sorted by categories and types of responses. So you could ask someone their favorite movie, or how old they are, etc. There were also emoticons, pre-defined and user-defined, that could be used to communicate. Thinking back on it, it was a really amazing system, and was completely effective. Online voice chat wasn’t made possible on a console until Alien Front Online, so a virtual keyboard via the controller was the primary method of communication, but the Dreamcast keyboard peripheral was preferred.
The second interesting aspect of PSO is the actual quest, which comprised of four people in a party. For a console, it was amazing. Little lag over a 56k connection, playing along with three other people from all over the globe. The chat system worked great in the quest as well, with statements like “I need help” or “I think we go this way”. Players could trade items they found in the quests with other players, and there was always bartering going on in the lobby. It was an awesome experience – I can remember partying with my friend in Chicago and two players from Japan, and there was hardly any communication barrier.
PSO came out on the Gamecube and Xbox and generally failed, primarily because it contained the same content as the Dreamcast version. Add to that a monthly fee, and people just didn’t want to pay to play the same game they did a couple years prior. Also, and I speak only about the Xbox version, people weren’t warm to paying a monthly fee on top of a yearly Xbox Live fee. But there were also a couple of other reasons why I think it failed in an environment which was clearly more favorable toward online gaming. The first, again with the Xbox version, voice chat killed the integrated text-based chat system which was so integral to the experience. The chat system was still there, but it was rendered pointless because of my next point – Xbox Live restricted players to servers in their geographic region. That means, you couldn’t have a player in the US playing with other players around the globe. The next-generation versions supported split-screen gaming, but even the Xbox version dropped the ball when it required you to have an Xbox Live account, even if you never played online.
So it’s refreshing that a title which overstayed its welcome still resonates enough in the gaming community to get ranked so high on EGM’s list. The original impact of the game remains untarnished in my mind, and hopefully future incarnations of the series will be able to evolve while still providing the experience of the original.