What's up in the mobile MMO world?

As many of my readers probably know, I am developing "Mornomia Mobile" (codename), an MMORPG for mobile phones which simply have J2ME (Java) and possibly even a low resolution. It is made to run on low end platforms, with a flexible codebase to automatically adjust even for high end phones. This provides a maximum possible userbase for a quite high-spec'd genre.

But developing such a game also requires to know what other products are there on the market. For that purpose I did a research on some other mobile MMORPG's to find out what these games have to offer and where Mornomia Mobile can improve, if it even needs to improve, based on our current concept.

1. TibiaME

(Symbian, J2ME)

The only one really similar to Mornomia Mobile in terms of 2D MMORPG. TibiaME has a simple real time combat system, has two classes, allows interaction with NPCs, like quests, and some other features. I would really play it longer, if it had just a little amount of... depth. Yeah, it plays a little weird. You just walk around, and walk against stuff. Thats the main interaction of this whole game. The combat system is really basic, as in "You have a weapon, you kill stuff" basic. Getting quests is also not so enjoyable, because the text of the NPCs displays too slowly and sometimes you can't even skip what they say. Also a hassle for the first time user is the really weird GUI ingame. It's so weird, I can't even explain it. Just try it.
That said, the community seems quite large, and they are still expanding the game, so even if this game has flaws, I recommend to try it out. Even if it is just for checking out how mobile MMORPGs look and play nowadays.

2. Shadow of Legend
(PC, Windows Mobile)
This one is quite interesting. According to the website, players of the PC version can play simultaneously with mobile devices and vice versa. This is accomplished by making a complete port of the game to a mobile device, which was quite a nice idea. I imagine playing this game at home,and when on the road with my mobile phone. These possibilities are quite nice. I would try it out, if I had a mobile device (or the PC version if I had a subscription). The game seems quite feature rich, with some races and classes to choose from, and it even looks like it has a decent combat system. But then, a Windows Mobile device is almost a full working PC, so this should be the minimum for such a type of game.

3. Old Wish III

(J2ME)
A Chinese MMORPG. Even though the Koreans are known for developing a lot of MMO's, this time a Chinese company got first. The game looks really nice, with nostalgic SNES-like graphics and a round-based combat system. I haven't played this game, but I believe it's quite good, because according to the publisher, it has 300.000 registered users, which is quite an accomplishment for a mobile MMORPG. Any additional info of this game is very hard to get, even though I would be very interested in a feature list or other possible information.

Edit:
4. Era of Eidolon
(J2ME)
Less realtime MMORPG than a strategic RPG. There is no real overworld to walk on, as there is only a town with some buildings you have to select. You start pretty basic, as you just have to go to the arena and fight. This staright-to-the point style is quite nice, if it only was realtime. Apparently they have about 200.000 users, but the last update they had was on October 6th. And I don't even know which year they mean. The idea of the game seems nice, and the roundbased strategic combat system is a good design choice considering the low-bandwidth and hyper-laggy mobile world. This was the only mobile MMO with a page to try it out first.

It may seem strange, but many of the mobile MMORPGs that once were (Era of Eidolon, Sphere..) ceased to exist, or at least at the time when this post was written, down. Comments I could get about these games were that they sucked and/or had horrible bugs. As with Mornomia Mobile, the server nears the 3.0 status, as my second rewrite progresses. The rewrite is now gameplay-centered, not connection-centered, to allow faster modifications of the game itself, and so enhance the playability. For example, instances are now implemented very nice in the server, without any needs for change of code in the client whatsoever. Implementing instances is very nice, as you can also include single player elements in an MMORPG, and such enhance the experience and fun of the game. And I won't even start talking about replayability...
As you could see maybe, was that the combat system for me in a MMORPG has highest priority, and I really hope I can reflect that in Mornomia Mobile. In fact, should and will not differ too much from a standard MMORPG for the PC, at least that's the goal.

The next post will possibly brag about the new mapeditor, but I guess the post won't appear soon, but we'll see.