I do agree that it is time for some change here, but the question is exactly what that change will be.
UO did indeed have some great features, and so BTW had Asherons call and Everquest. Future MMOs could learn a few things from them just as you can learn some things from currnt MMOs, but future games will also have to implement their own things as well.
Future MMOs will need to provide a gameplaywe never seen before in any MMO if they want to keep millions of players.
I think though that the near future will be a lot influenced by Guildwars 2 and similar games.
Beyond that it is surely a possibility that World of darkness online might change things a lot. It goes back to the source: pen and paper games and try to remake the genre from basics, just like UO once did. That is really how it should be done, instead of just improve a bit on all generations of MMOs before it.
Of course the possibility that Blizzard releases Wow 2 in 2016 or so exists as well, we might get another 10 years of Wow in that case, anything is possible.
Cmon Loke, you are smarter than this.
You think PnP RPGing is all that popular? You would of been laughed out of HS back in the 80s, and kids are even more brutal these days.
There is indeed a market for those products, but just like sandbox MMO gaming, the majority doesnt care for it.
The majority doesn't care for Skyrim?
Not sure about that.
Huh?
Skyrim isnt a MMO. It is a SP sandbox, which equates with a game like EQ....not SWG. Same with games like Red Dead Redemption, and the Bethesda Fallouts. There is a main story path you complete thru combat, and you are allowed to do side stuff. YOu sure as hell dont get thru those games by taking up the role of Uncle Owen.
You also do not produce the content. The game areas arent huge empty spaces you are allowed to build on either.
SP sandbox != MMO sandbox. SP sandbox = Open world Themepark.
Care to try to get it wrong again?
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
EVE broke 350k (despite Incarna), SWG danced at 300k (only to be killed by NGE), UO danced at 250k (choice hit it just like it hit EQ), and beyond that - well, one broke 100k for a short period, then we're down in the sub-60k range, etc.
NGE deflated it, but it was bleeding subs even before the CU, back when it was pretty much a sandbox game(which I loved). My point being, people get bored with sandboxes, too.
Not that everybody that got bored with SWG are like this, but some people are impatient zergs who get bored and quit once they hit "max level". SWG didn't have levels, but you only had one character per server, you could max out your skill points. Once they got tired of pursuing the FotM, they moved on.
That's where, IMO, Eve is pretty clever. Nigh-unlimited skills with diminishing returns either sends the zergs packing or keeps them indefinitely. IMO, it's one of the big pillars of its slow, but steady success.
Comments
Huh?
Skyrim isnt a MMO. It is a SP sandbox, which equates with a game like EQ....not SWG. Same with games like Red Dead Redemption, and the Bethesda Fallouts. There is a main story path you complete thru combat, and you are allowed to do side stuff. YOu sure as hell dont get thru those games by taking up the role of Uncle Owen.
You also do not produce the content. The game areas arent huge empty spaces you are allowed to build on either.
SP sandbox != MMO sandbox. SP sandbox = Open world Themepark.
Care to try to get it wrong again?
Asking Devs to make AAA sandbox titles is like trying to get fine dining on a McDonalds dollar menu budget.
NGE deflated it, but it was bleeding subs even before the CU, back when it was pretty much a sandbox game(which I loved). My point being, people get bored with sandboxes, too.
Not that everybody that got bored with SWG are like this, but some people are impatient zergs who get bored and quit once they hit "max level". SWG didn't have levels, but you only had one character per server, you could max out your skill points. Once they got tired of pursuing the FotM, they moved on.
That's where, IMO, Eve is pretty clever. Nigh-unlimited skills with diminishing returns either sends the zergs packing or keeps them indefinitely. IMO, it's one of the big pillars of its slow, but steady success.