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Which one of these Genre's deserves a proper MMO?
sludgebeard
Member RarePosts: 788
The MMO market is basically a stagnated heap of Fantasy games with a few Sci-Fi laden in between. We havent seen a new Superhero game since Champions, (I dont count Marvel Online as a proper MMO).
What do I mean when I saw proper? I mean a game without over-pour instance's and servers, with hundreds to a zone, open areas and dungeons to explore, aka Wildstar, WoW, SWG, even Guild Wars 2.
We also havent seen anything of the supernatural/horror genre since Secret World, and Wold of Darkness is now defunct. And there still lacks a good Western-Based MMO. Whats the deal!?
Anyways im going to provide a poll and a few options and I want you to vote on the genre you would like to see get the proper MMO treatment this coming year.
I added an "Other" option, if you chose this please provide a genre and tell us why it deserves an MMO.
Comments
I find it quite depressing to look at the crop of fantasy games we have currently; I think of myself as someone who loves the fantasy genre, but I really dislike high fantasy, medieval fantasy, horror fantasy, and war fantasy, and it seems like those are what game culture thinks fantasy is. Where is the comedy of manners fantasy? Situational comedy fantasy? Light-hearted historical fantasy or science fantasy? Fantasy romance? Fantasy adventure which isn't based on Tolkien and doesn't involve battling evil or fighting a war?
But what I was thinking when I voted other was that I want a low-tech survival MMO. I suppose it would technically be historical fantasy, though I'm not sure if a non-Earth low-tech setting really counts as historical. But seriously I want to play something like A Tale In The Desert except not Egyptian and with good PvE combat focused on drop-hunting crafting mats.
A cross-genre genre deserves a good mmo, one that has players starting in a high fantasy world vs players starting in a post apocalyptic world vs players in a sci-fi futuristic world. So, I voted "other", or all of the above.
edit: I'm imagining something along the lines of Gamma World, juiced-up, part-cybernetic animal/human hybrids for the post apoc setting. Or Rifts from Palladium books. Rifts is good.
I voted Sci-Fi, mostly because I'd love to see someone take a harder approach to science. Physics and electronic puzzles, not just a basis for weapons tech. Study of sciences, from anthropology to zoology (or at least xeno- versions of these disciplines). Observe. Hypothesize. Test. Publish. The eternal struggle for funding and acceptance.
Or maybe something with the Ringworld IP.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
I voted other because I want more Fantasy. Problem with Superhero and SciFi MMOs is you see to much city motief. When I am off gaming I like to see trees and flowers and everything nature. I know other types of MMOs can have that as well but fantasy games normally have more of it. I also love everything fantasy, dragons, magic and castles. IMO there is a reason its used most and the most popular MMOs are fantasy. Its the best setting for MMOs.
EDIT: Also the MMO I have been dying for is fantasy. I want a MMO based off the Wheel of Time books.
I picked Other, since I didn't see an option for for Romance.
I voted other.
Classical Steampunk, not "Magitech" Steampunk.
As for Western. It won't work. Not True Western. What are you going to fight? Your choices are rather limited. Mobs will be either coyotes or wanted men. What are you going to do for content.
There was an old Tabletop RPG in the 80s called Boot Hill by TSR games. (Same publisher as Dungeons and Dragons) It never caught on for the very reasons above. A True western was limited in content if it was to remain true to a theme. And that was a Tabletop game. What do you think you'll be doing in a Western MMORPG?
I could've sworn there was one of those...
Ugh, I can't remember it's name, and there was even a beta key giveaway for it on MMORPG.com not all that long ago.
Other than that there's always SWTOR and the other Bioware games with their romance options!
Edit: Gave my vote to Superhero, though Supernatural/Horror almost won. The only reason it didn't was because I have TSW for that genre, while I have nothing to get that superhero fix.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
To be honest what we need is nothing new. We need Exceptional without the Swtor FTP model and the FTP experience. A REAL SANDBOX and honestly a game that makes the word "Fun" real.
I had fun once, it was terrible.
I went western, but with a twist..
I would love to see a make believe western world with limited fantasy w/ realism such as:
Western is a bit 'controversial' since it usually means Cowboys vs Indians, which could easily be viewed as crass behavior, and definitely politically incorrect, let alone the whole scalping indians for profit thing. So many areas of the whole 'western' thing would have to be 'sanitized' that it would become a meaningless concept, doubt whether any MMO developer would touch the subject to be honest
that was way too much
I dont really care for any other genres but classic fantasy.
No other setting can easily incooperate so many other genres (in fact, most genres can and have be fit into that).
No other setting allows such a huge variance in character design.
Superhero - Superheros are people with 3 tricks, at most. Really compares poorly in comparison to a wizard in fantasy, who can have consistently hundreds of abilities.
Supernatural/Horror - Thats basically a subgenre of classic fantasy, and included in really any instance of classic fantasy games I'm aware of.
Racing - I have no idea how anyone would create a MMO out of nothing but racing alone. As a small game in the game, sure.
Pirate - Thats another subgenre of classic fantasy and thus you'll get that for free with that.
Sci-Fi - The only other genre aside from classic fantasy that I might consider; however, its basically just robots instead of golems, blasters instead of attack spells, etc. Theres even classic fantasy settings that actually have Sci-Fi and just treat it as another form of magic.
Historical - Thats kind of too vague a description. In fact, if you include mediveal times, you are basically already in classic fantasy again, just add magic and you're there. However, you can put really any kind of historical civilization into a classic fantasy setting.
Western - Eww.
It is also traditional to have older civilizations, such as egypt or rome, in classic fantasy. Also adding Steampunk in parts is popular, especially for Gnomes, and sometimes even the aforementioned Sci-Fi.
Really, if you want to give me a game I'm supposed to play for years, only classic fantasy allows enough depth and variance.
I really think steampunk would fit really well as an MMO, but really the only video game that's even come close is Dishonored and that's not actually steampunk, but kinda draws from it.
A lot of these other ideas are really esoteric though, Westerns are okay, but I don't see any longevity for a western MMO, I just don't think it's a very popular genre.
Sci-fi never really gets a chance either, it's always spaceships and lasers - just a smidge of creativity wouldn't hurt.
Post apocalyptic non-zombie game could be fun too. Why is it always zombies? Also why not post-apocalypse in different timelines? Sci-fi post-apoc, fantasy post-apoc, so on and so forth.
Oh I know, a vampire themed game - It's really bizarre how zombies are just as popular as vampires, but vampires never get games. Is it because twilight ruined things? You'd think a multi-faction game with vampire on one side, hunters on the other, and something else (werewolves to be cliche) on the other. Why not?
well i voted superhero. i loved CoX even though it was very shallow in terms of an mmo. i find it interesting that alot of responses seem to lean towards skills or how many skills determine their answer. i dont care if i only have 3-6 skills to choose from. hell i like the idea. i want a good setting and good story along with total freedom on where i can go. i did love that aspect in CoX.
This
I'd vote post-apocalyptic. If you add mutations to character creation you basically are getting a mix of fantasy, sci fi and superhero all in one game. Basically turn Gamma World into an MMORPG.
Depends on how creative the Devs are. Your superhero example can easily be applied to warriors and rogues in Fantasy settings as well. Even moreso, since by your reasoning they should have even less tricks since they're just ordinary people.
My SWTOR referral link for those wanting to give the game a try. (Newbies get a welcome package while returning players get a few account upgrades to help with their preferred status.)
https://www.ashesofcreation.com/ref/Callaron/
Post-apocalyptic nuclear wasteland MMO please!
With all kinds of hideous mutants and robots gone haywire. Low tech meets high-tech. Mad Max and Fallout 1+2. Come on, you know you want it.
Slacker extraordinaire!
That sounds fun but only for a few weeks. Then looking at ruined cities for that long I kinda get stick of it.
I agree. It's part of why I don't understand people who like post apocalyptic, space, and zombie games so much.
In a post apocalyptic game it's fairly depressing after a while. Everything is in ruins.
In a space game there are only space ships and staring into the void of space unless you are able to actually land on the planets (very rare).
In zombie games you always have to be on the move and the scenery is generally depressing like post apocalyptic. It's not a setting you want to play to relax at all.
Fantasy is great because it's like the earth before humans populated. There are lots of beautiful open areas to explore. There are lost cities to find. There are mysterious races to find and to play as. To me exploring an earth type environment is a lot more fun. The fantasy monsters and magic are also something you can have a lot of fun with. I believe the main problem with fantasy is that it's lost most of this. There is no exploration. There is no adventure. Races, Monsters, and Classes have lost their identities. Basically everything has lost it's meaning in order to allow players choice that shouldn't be there. IMO elves should all be stealthy Ranger/Druid types who love nature. Ogres should generally all be brutes with the very rare exception. I believe all races represent a certain aspect of humanity. Once you take that way you might as well take the race away as a whole. The reason humans are awesome in fantasy because they are unique in their ability to choose what path they want to follow for good or evil. All other races were not given this free will by the gods IMO.
? Way too much what?
Yeah, but post-apocalytpic doesn't mean everything permanently stays ruined. Maybe that could be a big part of the game, you and the community rebuild the world while trying to prevent what you're building from being destroyed (PvE sandbox!) So yeah there would be ruins everywhere, but here and there you'd find glorious player built cities with bustling hubs of trade.
Maybe it's a stigma because MMO's are rather static so City X has always been there and will always be there. If cities rose and fell, that could be a great gameplay element. Instead of a guild disbanding and no one caring, a big guild disbands and the city they built slowly deteriorates and eventually is gone.