General: PAX East - The Future of Online Games

BillMurphy

MMORPG.com brings together some of the top developers in the industry to discuss the next decade of online games and their growing mass market appeal. Game Developers from: Guild Wars 2, Star Wars: The Old Republic, TERA, Age of Conan: Unchained, Planetside 2, Defiance and Reckoning: Kingdoms of Amalur will be on hand to answer your questions and talk directly to fans about their games and the future of the industry.

Watch the panel in its entirety, recorded by the brave and dedicated PAX East Staffers right here on the site!

BillMurphy

That host is a huge dork...

Thought I'd get that out of the way early.  Enjoy folks!

MikeB

Woot! If you were at this panel, what'd you think?!

MikeB

Originally posted by BillMurphy

That host is a huge dork...

Thought I'd get that out of the way early.  Enjoy folks!

 

Yeah, seriously. Who got the bright idea of having him host such an epic panel? Sheesh!

Tardcore

Wait, when the hell do you hand out the weapons so they can do battle to the death!?

 

My question for James Ohlen: "WTF were you thinking!? You stupid, STUPID, little man!? Just kidding, . . . mostly.

 

garrett

Sick Panel!! Tops last years by a mile! 

 

Amazin  

orbitxo

what an epic panel and a waste of 59min most of it talking about WoW. thats sad.

i want my time back.

[mod edit- removing non-working code]

Loke666

Nice panel, even though I personally would have wanted someone from Undead labs there as well.

I don´t agree with above poster that it was all about Wow, I don´t think it is possible to discuss the future of MMOs without mentioning Wow and EQ, the past of MMOs as well.

BillMurphy

Originally posted by Loke666

Nice panel, even though I personally would have wanted someone from Undead labs there as well.

I don´t agree with above poster that it was all about Wow, I don´t think it is possible to discuss the future of MMOs without mentioning Wow and EQ, the past of MMOs as well.

 

I agree, Loke.  Gotta know where you come from, to see where you're going.

Chrisbox

I absolutely love this video.  One major thing I can agree on though is that there is that one game that sparks us all into this genre, and drives us into the community.  For me, [and many others] it was WoW and now that I feel it has lost its flare swtor is giving me that amazing mmo experience again, and hopefully gw2 will provide the same[ And we dont even have to pay! ].  2012 is going to be another great year for all MMO fans.

marcust

Of the 37 minutes I've seen so far I agree that you should not be turned off by the comments above, I've enjoyed listening to what they all have to say and it has given insight into the near future of online gaming.

I doubt its in the last 22 minutes and apologies if it is, but being an Aussie I would love to have asked whether anyone has designed an online gaming component that allows their game to compensate for ping to allow people worldwide to experience the same game the same way. The model of having some servers in Chicago and some in Europe and you must play one or the other and accept that, just isn't going to work in MMOShooters, people will get tired of those with 50- ping having an "I win" button. Maybe that will be part of the next great collaboration, sometime in 2016.

Emwyn

I can say I wish this person was there instead of that one but it was probably a pretty balanced viewpoint. Enjoyed the reminders of where we've come from and I laughed a bit too. Little worried about the talk of the future ie micro transactions but hey I'm open. Someday someone will come up with a model I won't mind so much or a game I want to play so bad I just won't care :P All in, it left me with the feeling that even if we aren't quite there yet, the genre may be changing in other ways too and it's hopefully evolving towards something good.

marcust

Ok now that I've seen the whole presentation can I say: Bill if you have any of those keys left over please send me one. *grins*

Very happy that I've spent an hour on this and I think you just sold me on buying GW2 - the open world feel and doing what you "want" to do today rather than having to do the "next" thing has made me start thinking of how I can free up large blocks of hours to experience this.

Vyperzero

Mike and Bill,

This is Vince from the meet and greet last night. had a hell of a time and i want to say again, Bill, that i think you did a GREAT job hosting the panel! I'll check out your guys site now

RelGn

Why blizzard was not there.Are they the black sheep?

i think blizzard is the real pro game company.

BillMurphy

Originally posted by Vyperzero

Mike and Bill,

This is Vince from the meet and greet last night. had a hell of a time and i want to say again, Bill, that i think you did a GREAT job hosting the panel! I'll check out your guys site now

 

Ha!  Thanks Vince!  it was great meeting you too.  Good luck in that Colorado (?) air man... don't let the beer win! 

BillMurphy

Originally posted by reignjuste

Why blizzard was not there.Are they the black sheep?

i think blizzard is the real pro game company.

 

Blizzard tends not to attend these shows, accept in terms of hiring and careers stuff.  Believe me, we asked.    Maybe at PRIME!

BillMurphy

Originally posted by marcust

Ok now that I've seen the whole presentation can I say: Bill if you have any of those keys left over please send me one. *grins*

Very happy that I've spent an hour on this and I think you just sold me on buying GW2 - the open world feel and doing what you "want" to do today rather than having to do the "next" thing has made me start thinking of how I can free up large blocks of hours to experience this.

 

If you can believe it, Martin Kerstein gave MORE out at his own CM panel on Sunday morning. But sadly, we don't have any extras ourselves.

marcust

thanks anyway

Please ask these guys my initial question if you get the chance, I know the US is 90% of the market, but even hosting a server in Chicago could give east coasters a huge advantage over west coasters (ala the Darkfall server move) and with the way these games are going it seems to be more and more of an issue. 

 

natuxatu

Interesting enough vid.... though I thought the first video of that MMO shooter was a little lacking to say the least... and the guy on the end seemed like a total ahole.. but i don't know him personally so who knows.

Guild Wars 2 is looking good and I like how the guy from Guild Wars 2 was the only person to shake hands.. everyone else was just up and leaving..

But I did agree with a lot of what they said. I guess we'll see what 2012 has in store.

Unknown

Loved the video.  The most amazing thing is that I bet you all had a bit of difficulty finding enough chairs for the panelists - lots more games coming out this year than in many of the past years.  I think Curt nailed it on the head - we will have much more voice in what is a success and what is not just by spending our time in games as there are only so many play hours available.

 

dubyahite

Why didn't you ask Higby when Planetside 2 is coming out!!!@!@#!@#!%% 

 

Haha, Just kidding. Great panel.  

MikeB

Originally posted by Vyperzero

Mike and Bill,

This is Vince from the meet and greet last night. had a hell of a time and i want to say again, Bill, that i think you did a GREAT job hosting the panel! I'll check out your guys site now

 

Awesome, Vince! Glad you had a good time. Was great meeting you and Devin! We'll be doing this again next year!

Nitth

I get the feeling they are really "carefree" in comparison to how strong some of us gamers can feel lol.

DarkPony

Real nice that you guys organized this. This is the stuff mmorpg sites are made of. Having genre spanning debates like this is very typical as it so clearly shows the passion of the devs as well as the entire mmorpg gaming community for our beloved genre. Well done indeed.

It might be a coincidence but the developers and the games represented in this panel were very much of the same mind in a lot of cases. I would have loved to see an AAA sandbox developer objecting to the mutual condemning of more complex games (like EVE) to a niche corner of the market and the notion that big budget developments need to be easily accesible games.

Sadly AAA sandboxes or AAA "complex" mmorpgs, are uncharted territory as no developer took the risk (or found the investors) to give that a try. EVE might have became one, but only gradually, after launch and it has other aspects preventing it to be in the "millions of subs" league than mere complexity; "you are a spaceship", for one and the lack of a lush and purty gameworld for another.

So yeah: these guys said some interesting things but I never really could get past the idea that they were all bound to defend proven formula's because that's what they are currently working on (Even PS2 relies on proven mechanics, allbeit from another genre).

In regards to Jon Peters' "the game just has to be fun" remark: you are right, but fun can come in all kinds of shapes and not always through ready accesible, premade content and a high level of convenience for players. To me personally overcoming complexity, obstacles and challenges in an unpredictable world where players are at the helm is fun. Looking at the growing amount of more experienced, older as well as newer, smarter mmorpg gamers makes me really think that this is a way bigger "niche" than the industry is currently catering for.



Nice vid at the end: absurdly short loading screens (albeit IN-zone/region) and the worlds' open character make me hopeful (even though I'd rather spend some time enjoying the vistas and ride that distance instead of teleporting :P). But it's cool to see a concern some of us had being directly addressed.

 

Tardcore

Originally posted by DarkPony

Real nice that you guys organized this. This is the stuff mmorpg sites are made of. Having genre spanning debates like this is very typical as it so clearly shows the passion of the devs as well as the entire mmorpg gaming community for our beloved genre. Well done indeed.

It might be a coincidence but the developers and the games represented in this panel were very much of the same mind in a lot of cases. I would have loved to see an AAA sandbox developer objecting to the mutual condemning of more complex games (like EVE) to a niche corner of the market and the notion that big budget developments need to be easily accesible games.

Sadly AAA sandboxes or AAA "complex" mmorpgs, are uncharted territory as no developer took the risk (or found the investors) to give that a try. EVE might have became one, but only gradually, after launch and it has other aspects preventing it to be in the "millions of subs" league than mere complexity; "you are a spaceship", for one and the lack of a lush and purty gameworld for another.

So yeah: these guys said some interesting things but I never really could get past the idea that they were all bound to defend proven formula's because that's what they are currently working on (Even PS2 relies on proven mechanics, allbeit from another genre).



 

In regards to Jon Peters' "the game just has to be fun" remark: you are right, but fun can come in all kinds of shapes and not always through ready accesible, premade content and a high level of convenience for players. To me personally overcoming complexity, obstacles and challenges in an unpredictable world where players are at the helm, is fun.

Nice vid at the end: absurdly short loading screens (albeit IN-zone/region) and the worlds' open character make me hopeful (even though I'd rather spend some time enjoying the vistas and ride that distance:P). But it's cool to see a concern some of us had being directly addressed.

 

 

Meh. I still feel a battle royal, cage match to the death, would have been better.