Is the belief here that Developers are settling? Because if that is the belief then we arent having intelligent discussions here, we are being ignorant.
Square-Enix, TCoS, Mythic, NCSoft and even (cough cough) SOE are making attempts to come out with unqiuely imagined or implemented MMOs for people to enjoy. To be honest we would even be close to seeing one of the most revolutionary Space-Fantasy MMOs in existance if Perpetual Entertainment held true to the vision of Paramount when developing Star Trek Online. The games are coming.
Why do naysayers exist? Because even within the depths of human existance people inately feel and believe that there is more to life than what we are "stuck with" WoW has seen its day. It is currently experiencing the haitous of its existance as we all know it. Not because its rude to say that but because history has told us "the good life" doesnt last forever. What goes up MUST come down. When something comes down....something new goes UP.
As long as developers TRY to keep things fresh and exciting I will be right here testing, gaming and spending my hard earned cash in this genre. FPS and RTS in my opinion cannot simulate or even attempt to touch the immersive experience of an honest to god RPG. Its why people still M.U.D., still play Ultima Online (even if specific people dont) Sandbox or Linear we only even attempt to make those discussions relevant because we are anxiously anticipating the new MMO GOD. That one new innovative fresh idea that will blow us away and keep us attached to our computers for hours on end to see the next coolest part of their imagination.
Ladies and Gentlemen when the Roman Empire of the MMO Industry falls....and it WILL FALL. Where will you be?
PSA: This post is not a naysayer against WOW. I love WoW. I love LOTRO. I love DDO. I play them all. However, to assume the Blizzard will live forever is an assumption ill-founded if you wish to build your castle on the sand thats fine, I will build mine on the soundness of rock and we will see whose remains after the storms of time. To those who say WoW isnt a good game...I pity you...go play Cabal and any other free2play MMO with Item Malls while you spend your hard earned cash on gear and items I will simply spend my monthly fee...when I wish to play at no loss to my experience in gaming and time spent earning what my characters have...Unless of course I happen to get hacked.
Edit Note: The fact that DingoBoi just tried to place SWG above WoW on the analogy time line makes me want to cut and edit the post off the internet forever. Dude? Did you play SWG? Before or after SOE funked up people's lives with their patches from hell? You have GOT to be kidding me. There came a point in time when there was absolutely nothing fun about that game other than the cool music for PlayOnline loading.
Personally... I don't think anything will revolutionize the MMO market when people constantly have the mindset of "What is something new that the players can do in the game that we have never seen before?"
I think the focus is on the wrong element. You can change the combat system a million times. You can add a million things into the game, and design and implement them perfectly. But none of that will matter. Why? Well, you need no further than to look at your first available Single Player game to figure out how genre's keep reinventing themselves.
Take Half Life 2 for instance. Can anyone really tell me what made that game so special? Does anyone have even the slightest idea? No, it isn't the physics engine. No, it's not even the graphics. It wasn't even the sound.
What about switching genres? Take KOTOR for instance - why was it such a revolutionary RPG? The graphics, even for its time was nothing to be praised (although it was really sweet to see your sabers flashing about.) Was it all the neato Force Powers? Surely the level progression wasn't it - I mean, after all, it's not like it was the first RPG to allow you to gain levels.
How about another genre? Myst - Why was this such a revolutionary game? The state of the art graphics (for the time)? The movement? Hell no! Even for that day and age, the movement was rediculous.
The Sims?
There is something all of these games hold in common. It's the one thing that made Halo better than any other FPS on a console before it. It's what made games like Prince of Persia one of the all time favorite classic games ever.
Think about it like this folks - WoW hallmarks the end of the classic MMO game. It won't get any better until designers figure out what the genre is missing, that every other genre has really caught onto. It's the thing that allowed Mario to single handedly save video games as we know them. What was diffrent about Mario than Pacman?
Answer that simple question, and you'll discover what the next great MMO will have to have to revolutionize the genre.
The problem with quality MMORPGs is content, specifically lack thereof. The next-gen MMORPG will have incredibly powerful, fun, easy to use tools that will allow its customers to create and model mobs, dungeons, item, trees, shrubs, etc., and upload them to the world. The balancing would be done by the developers but a constant flow of new content would be neverending.
For example, a talented artist could fully render in 3D a creature and upload it with the tools provided. The community could vote on its quality and the best ones would get in the game. That person would receive 2 months free play time, get to name the mob, and possibly other rewards. The devs role would be to put attributes to that mob (strong, resistent to fire, level 30-31, social, drop table, etc.) and place it in the world.
Other people could make dungeons, outdoor areas, towers, whatever, using the powerful tools. Others could create and upload audio, both music and sound effects. This is how I envision future, successful MMORPGs because people, like me at least, aren't going to grind garbage and pay for it any longer.
As for me, I think I will wait for someone to give more mobs to grind as I am eagerly awaiting the next Developer to receive my fifteen dollars a month.
- Environment: Sand box. Everything you do is permanent in this world so be carfefull
- PVP: You need to pvp to get that uber helmet; There's a mine over there that gives 1 zillion gold coins per day that is owned by that disgusting WeAreUba clan, let's take it
- PVE: those aliens/monsters/NPCs want to rule the world/universe and it's your mission to prevent that, btw they are not so dumb they have tactitcs and can chase you around
- Crafting: Man, all my crafting stuff is better than loot
- I don't like to kill stuff or other players: No problem, there's anternative ways to raise your character skills/level/etc
- I can only play one hour per day: cool, you can be a... frog/alien/NPC/uber paladin of the after hours.
- I'm an hardcore player I want to play 23h per day: Cool after you reach level cap there's a all new world for you with exclusive pvp and pve with great rewards and... no grinding; or... level cap? what's that? hmm did you ever though to play a NPC boss
- Man, I want to be something completely diferent: No problem, you choose what you want to be, no rules, no bounds, it's your world. Be carefull there's other people out there.
IMO "the next great MMO that will revolutionize the industry" won't come from the current MMORPG dev crowd... They're all so hung up with all the conventions of the genre that it is seriously weakening their ability to see what makes games really "fun" in a visceral sense. The last "great MMO that revolutionized the industry" came from RTS people - Blizzard My bet for the current next gen is on the FPS crowd. They really know how to design their 3D worlds - I haven't seen a MMORPG PvP instance that can hold candle to an average battleground in ET: QuakeWars for example. In addition the features that are taken for granted in online FPSs are sorely missed in the current slew of MMORPGs and I'm not talking about twitch-based combat. Just take one of the recent blockbusters in that genre, slap on an open, persistent world with social play and some economy and voilla!
I think you are right on the money here, I have suspected this for a while now. The FPS Dev teams are going to jump into this and blow this whole thing wide open!!
They will set a new level of interaction and content, and they wil make the old MMO teams burn their playbooks and start afresh.
That is the next revolution beyond the next few evolutions, the signs are already on the horizon and its the next logical step for multiplayer FPS games.
Originally posted by telebreth Edit Note: The fact that DingoBoi just tried to place SWG above WoW on the analogy time line makes me want to cut and edit the post off the internet forever. Dude? Did you play SWG? Before or after SOE funked up people's lives with their patches from hell? You have GOT to be kidding me. There came a point in time when there was absolutely nothing fun about that game other than the cool music for PlayOnline loading.
I do rank SWG above wow for it's player interactivity, sandbox, player based commerce and skill system. It has the FEATURES of a next gen mmo, although they poorly implemented alot of them and then scrapped them all essentially in favor of the NGE. But the original game if fixed, would still be going extremely strong today.
Perhaps you missed this:
SWG was like middle school with a seriously farked up principal who was delusional and rampant to suspend people for pointing out the obvious educational disparities.
Geez, I hate what SOE did to the game that I loved more than anybody else, but the original design was good, it just needed to be fixed and improved instead of being scrapped.
The concept wasn't a failure. The concept was great and many people flocked to this game for those features who weren't even remotely interested in the SW universe. SWG failed in implementation of those features, but we all did get a very good glimpse at what could be at launch and for at least a year after.. It was true innovation and expansion on basic tank/healer/mage/whatever classes.
SWG was one of the first games to really let you play a person in a world and be who you wanted to be, not just a subset of 4-8 classes where you had to be just like thousands of other people. That's innovation. That's good in my book.
So yes, I rank SWG higher in that regard, though I do agree the implementation and later scrapping and re-doing of the game ruined any such innovation, but that doesn't change the fact that it was an epoch leap in game design... which ultimately they couldn't carry off.
SOE screwed it up, but it doesn't mean the original design wasn't and isn't what i'm looking for in a next-gen mmo. SOE had it right (at first at least) and if wow hadn't come along, we'd likely still be playing SWG now since they would have fixed the broken things and not have tried to be like wow.
excellent clarification. I assumed you meant the finished product.
When people mention SWG most people are referring to what is currently out in retail and the sad fact is that Sony epically failed and improving the game by making it worse. Just goes to show us like with WoW's more recent Patches how many patches are truly necessary to make the game better....stick to adding content and you are on a good path....divert even but a morsel and you ruin it for the masses.....
SO with your rebuttle I am in agreement. Their original product was leaps and bounds closer to a next-gen model MMO but their hands on improvements screwed that up for everyone.
The PC game market is shrinking every year, fewer developers are even gonna bother making games for PC before they make it for a console. Most pc games these days you ask yourself "Can I run it?" No need to ask that question if you have a console, as a matter of fact you don't even need to buy the game, you can just rent it. Ther has become way more cons than pros when it comes to PC games. To bad.
I'm glad you understand. I'm no soe fanboi, but at least initially, they had it right.... they just couldn't pull it off for various reasons.
I WANT that game that recreates and IMPROVES on what soe had to offer initially in SWG. It was good (at first, but definitely needed improvement).
I want complete and utter sandbox.... what they offered was only half-sandbox tho.
Still, it was a good start.
Give me SWG at launch with professions that actually work (mine worked ok for what I chose but many others didn't) and give meTHE CHANCE TO PHYSICALLY ALTER THE WORLD.
I think that point is the next epoch leap in games.... GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO PHYSICALLY AND PERMANETLY ALTER THE WORLD.
And i am not talking about bad stuff. I'm talking about a platform built to implement new features in a game and storyline friendly way.
For example.... in a game without easy transit, I want to be able to build a railway between point A and point B. Naturally, this is still controlled by the dev's but as a new feature, instead of just making it available on patch day, I want to build it, along with 30-70k of my fellow servermates.
THIS IS NEXT GEN.
Build your platform so you can introduce features and make the players QUEST /MISSION for those features if they want them.
Explicit example: The game has no mass transit or quick transit....the devs build a train system... multiple missions are launched to get all the players to try and help build that train... from laying the track to building the train cars.
That is a world effort that people actually do remember... Yes, it is a one time only quest so to speak but it benefits everybody and 20-30k people must partake in it to complet it (adjust numbers as needed)
If you buiild a system around bulding things... then you immediatly have so much more content.
Another example is building a house. Perhaps you can hire npcs or other players, but you should also need lots of raw materials.... if you don't want to get those materials, yyou should be able to post missions to collecrt them and what you are offering for the product.
Say perhaps I want a mansion today.... um... I'll pay 1000 creds per requir4ed unit to get it built faster versus using npcs who build at 20 creds/ day . adjust creds as needed.
Now that I think about it more... the above IS the next gen mmo.... one that (almost) truly lets us own our wor.ld.
Any changes need to be dev designed of course, but make it missions and progress to implement these newly available features... Don't just let us click a button and use that new train without building it.
PERHAPS this could be the single greatest evoltuion in gaming in allowing us to physically alter the game world.
It's not bad becuse all current players can partake. It's not bad if others later can't (how is it different if the players put it in versus the devs) but the system is good.
LET PLAYERS MAKE AND IMPLEMENT TRULY WORLD CHANGING EVENTS (WITHIN DEV DESIGN).
Let us own our world (or at least pretend to)
I'd much rather build that railway over time than just have it one day... and I want this for all buildable features.
make it take time and some concerted efffort.
Don't just let the house appear, I want to start building and say a week later only to come back and find it's finished. I also want to see the building progress. from timbers to finished product.
I know it sounds hard but it isn't if you build your platform to support it.
You build one platform and you can do railways, airporrts, bases, bus depots, turrets and defenses for pvp,
DAMMIT, just make building an integral part of the mmo.
Id say an updated version of Rubies of Eventide. That game has a TON of great stuff going for it but not many people play because of the complexity, outdated graphics, strange combat style, and small community. To me, that is every reason (minus the graphics) to play an MMO. A small community will grow, but the community that you joined with will always be there. Small = helpful.
Anyway, just an updated version of that wouldnt be ground breaking or anything. It would simply get more people to open their eyes and give other MMOs a go. It would certainly introduce very in depth character development that I personally havent seen displayed in many other MMOs.
Two completely different markets with the RPG and FPS crowds. Both can exist and excel without hurting the other.
Until FPS games get off the war of technology, MMO development for them is not there yet.
Ofc it's different crowds... just like RTS and MMORPGs are different markets and yet Blizzard made THE most successfull MMORPG to date.
As for tech-war imo it is already dying down. Crysis anyone? Doom 3? The majority of FPS devs have realized that awesome graphics aren't the end-all of FPSs... The current most popular games in that genre don't play exclusively on the gfx card, the gameplay really is the most important thing - TF2, CS....
We'll see but IMO the FPS guys have it. They'll probably create something that won't even be called a MMORPG... maybe a "COD 5 massive future war" or something like that. They'll probably introduce some parallel crafting/economy/exploration gameplay modes which will be a natural evolution of those already present in some of the recent OFPSs and there you have it!
They are already trying to widen their potential player base so it's not just twitchy headshots anymore. You can play some of the classes in QW:ET almost without firing a shot. Other games are introducing officer mechanics which enable some players to experience the game almost as a RTS with real soldiers... How's that for guild management?! This is very significant change in the way we play online games - the players don't all experience basically the same gameplay - while they share a common "world" they access it from different roles/perspectives. EVE is already doing something like this but in its own quiet way... you can play the game quite meaningfully as a politician, corp manager, merchant - all without actually fighting or even flying around in your spaceship too much. This combined with awesome level design and all the marvelous vehicles and gadgets would really be the "next thing".
/edit
I'm not saying that the next thing will be "twitch based". What I'm saying is that the best chance comes from people who have a fresh perspective on the genre - they'll look at the current state of MMOs and do their own thing influenced by the games from a different genre they did before... The best things usually get produced when there is a cross-fertilization of ideas. If you don't let the fresh blood in you will succumb to the boredom of decadence. And that's what we have now.
EQ established the core MMORPG genre. WoW polished that core, and took out a lot of the boring parts. There is nothing wrong with copying WoW, and making a polished version of EQ over and over. That works in every genre.
How many RTS games did you play? I played a bunch, and it was build a base, gather resources, build units, attack. Different terrain, different units and resources, but that formula over and over.
What about an FPS? Different graphics, different weapons and effects, but point click shoot, over and over.
The problem is, it's hard to make a polished version of EQ. Even the original developer of EQ couldn't do it, and instead released crappy Vanguard.
I don't know what will revolutionize the industry. I'll tell you one thing it won't be is real time combat, ala FPS. We already have great FPS games like Call of Duty 4, and many more in development. There's nothing revolutionary about that.
What I would LIKE to see is the ability to change the world, instead of just my character. Hopefully WAR is going to deliver on that, at least a little bit. I hope it will be successful, and devs will build on this model, as well as the Pre-screwup SWG.
Huge critical aclaim, 90+ rating from pretty much every game review and 10 million subs > you opinion about weather WoW is good or not. It might not be the game for you (everyone likes different things in games right?), but that doesn't mean it's not good.
That makes it successful, it doesn't necessarily make it good. "Good" is a value judgement. WoW appeals to the lowest common denominator and those kinds of games do tend to be commercial successes among those who really don't appreciate the finer details, and be critical successes among those who don't have a clue what they're reviewing.
I wouldn't be caught dead playing WoW, simply because it really epitomizes everything that is wrong in the MMO market. Just because millions of people can be conned into playing it doesn't make it worthwhile.
I doubt much will ever be revolutionary. It's more evolutionary than anything. SWG, as flawed as it might have been, was on the right track. Very customizable, open worlds, varied professions, skill based (initially), player based economy, reliance on other players. It failed in missions/quests that were repetative and lack of any meaningful pvp (even though I'm not a pvp fan). SWG was a bit of an epoch leap in concept, but had many problems as well. Still, it was fun for very many people. I want a game that will emulate the good concepts and improve the parts they notably failed in. Currently, I'm waiting for Fallen Earth, but also looking at Earthrise. Neither will be revolutionary, but I see some of the best parts of the old SWG there and much improved systems that SWG failed in.
Why do games have to be revolutionary? Why can't they just be fun to play? That's what a game is for anyway..
Comments
Ignorance is bliss.
Is the belief here that Developers are settling? Because if that is the belief then we arent having intelligent discussions here, we are being ignorant.
Square-Enix, TCoS, Mythic, NCSoft and even (cough cough) SOE are making attempts to come out with unqiuely imagined or implemented MMOs for people to enjoy. To be honest we would even be close to seeing one of the most revolutionary Space-Fantasy MMOs in existance if Perpetual Entertainment held true to the vision of Paramount when developing Star Trek Online. The games are coming.
Why do naysayers exist? Because even within the depths of human existance people inately feel and believe that there is more to life than what we are "stuck with" WoW has seen its day. It is currently experiencing the haitous of its existance as we all know it. Not because its rude to say that but because history has told us "the good life" doesnt last forever. What goes up MUST come down. When something comes down....something new goes UP.
As long as developers TRY to keep things fresh and exciting I will be right here testing, gaming and spending my hard earned cash in this genre. FPS and RTS in my opinion cannot simulate or even attempt to touch the immersive experience of an honest to god RPG. Its why people still M.U.D., still play Ultima Online (even if specific people dont) Sandbox or Linear we only even attempt to make those discussions relevant because we are anxiously anticipating the new MMO GOD. That one new innovative fresh idea that will blow us away and keep us attached to our computers for hours on end to see the next coolest part of their imagination.
Ladies and Gentlemen when the Roman Empire of the MMO Industry falls....and it WILL FALL. Where will you be?
PSA: This post is not a naysayer against WOW. I love WoW. I love LOTRO. I love DDO. I play them all. However, to assume the Blizzard will live forever is an assumption ill-founded if you wish to build your castle on the sand thats fine, I will build mine on the soundness of rock and we will see whose remains after the storms of time. To those who say WoW isnt a good game...I pity you...go play Cabal and any other free2play MMO with Item Malls while you spend your hard earned cash on gear and items I will simply spend my monthly fee...when I wish to play at no loss to my experience in gaming and time spent earning what my characters have...Unless of course I happen to get hacked.
Edit Note: The fact that DingoBoi just tried to place SWG above WoW on the analogy time line makes me want to cut and edit the post off the internet forever. Dude? Did you play SWG? Before or after SOE funked up people's lives with their patches from hell? You have GOT to be kidding me. There came a point in time when there was absolutely nothing fun about that game other than the cool music for PlayOnline loading.
Personally... I don't think anything will revolutionize the MMO market when people constantly have the mindset of "What is something new that the players can do in the game that we have never seen before?"
I think the focus is on the wrong element. You can change the combat system a million times. You can add a million things into the game, and design and implement them perfectly. But none of that will matter. Why? Well, you need no further than to look at your first available Single Player game to figure out how genre's keep reinventing themselves.
Take Half Life 2 for instance. Can anyone really tell me what made that game so special? Does anyone have even the slightest idea? No, it isn't the physics engine. No, it's not even the graphics. It wasn't even the sound.
What about switching genres? Take KOTOR for instance - why was it such a revolutionary RPG? The graphics, even for its time was nothing to be praised (although it was really sweet to see your sabers flashing about.) Was it all the neato Force Powers? Surely the level progression wasn't it - I mean, after all, it's not like it was the first RPG to allow you to gain levels.
How about another genre? Myst - Why was this such a revolutionary game? The state of the art graphics (for the time)? The movement? Hell no! Even for that day and age, the movement was rediculous.
The Sims?
There is something all of these games hold in common. It's the one thing that made Halo better than any other FPS on a console before it. It's what made games like Prince of Persia one of the all time favorite classic games ever.
Think about it like this folks - WoW hallmarks the end of the classic MMO game. It won't get any better until designers figure out what the genre is missing, that every other genre has really caught onto. It's the thing that allowed Mario to single handedly save video games as we know them. What was diffrent about Mario than Pacman?
Answer that simple question, and you'll discover what the next great MMO will have to have to revolutionize the genre.
The problem with quality MMORPGs is content, specifically lack thereof. The next-gen MMORPG will have incredibly powerful, fun, easy to use tools that will allow its customers to create and model mobs, dungeons, item, trees, shrubs, etc., and upload them to the world. The balancing would be done by the developers but a constant flow of new content would be neverending.
For example, a talented artist could fully render in 3D a creature and upload it with the tools provided. The community could vote on its quality and the best ones would get in the game. That person would receive 2 months free play time, get to name the mob, and possibly other rewards. The devs role would be to put attributes to that mob (strong, resistent to fire, level 30-31, social, drop table, etc.) and place it in the world.
Other people could make dungeons, outdoor areas, towers, whatever, using the powerful tools. Others could create and upload audio, both music and sound effects. This is how I envision future, successful MMORPGs because people, like me at least, aren't going to grind garbage and pay for it any longer.
MMORPGs are virtual skinner boxes.
http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/skinner.html
well if that is how you envision the future awesome....it came and went.
See: http://www.secondlife.com
As for me, I think I will wait for someone to give more mobs to grind as I am eagerly awaiting the next Developer to receive my fifteen dollars a month.
It will have to be something like this:
- Combat: FPS.
- Environment: Sand box. Everything you do is permanent in this world so be carfefull
- PVP: You need to pvp to get that uber helmet; There's a mine over there that gives 1 zillion gold coins per day that is owned by that disgusting WeAreUba clan, let's take it
- PVE: those aliens/monsters/NPCs want to rule the world/universe and it's your mission to prevent that, btw they are not so dumb they have tactitcs and can chase you around
- Crafting: Man, all my crafting stuff is better than loot
- I don't like to kill stuff or other players: No problem, there's anternative ways to raise your character skills/level/etc
- I can only play one hour per day: cool, you can be a... frog/alien/NPC/uber paladin of the after hours.
- I'm an hardcore player I want to play 23h per day: Cool after you reach level cap there's a all new world for you with exclusive pvp and pve with great rewards and... no grinding; or... level cap? what's that? hmm did you ever though to play a NPC boss
- Man, I want to be something completely diferent: No problem, you choose what you want to be, no rules, no bounds, it's your world. Be carefull there's other people out there.
----------------------
Have fun
I think you are right on the money here, I have suspected this for a while now. The FPS Dev teams are going to jump into this and blow this whole thing wide open!!
They will set a new level of interaction and content, and they wil make the old MMO teams burn their playbooks and start afresh.
That is the next revolution beyond the next few evolutions, the signs are already on the horizon and its the next logical step for multiplayer FPS games.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Two completely different markets with the RPG and FPS crowds. Both can exist and excel without hurting the other.
Until FPS games get off the war of technology, MMO development for them is not there yet.
Perhaps you missed this:
SWG was like middle school with a seriously farked up principal who was delusional and rampant to suspend people for pointing out the obvious educational disparities.
Geez, I hate what SOE did to the game that I loved more than anybody else, but the original design was good, it just needed to be fixed and improved instead of being scrapped.
The concept wasn't a failure. The concept was great and many people flocked to this game for those features who weren't even remotely interested in the SW universe. SWG failed in implementation of those features, but we all did get a very good glimpse at what could be at launch and for at least a year after.. It was true innovation and expansion on basic tank/healer/mage/whatever classes.
SWG was one of the first games to really let you play a person in a world and be who you wanted to be, not just a subset of 4-8 classes where you had to be just like thousands of other people. That's innovation. That's good in my book.
So yes, I rank SWG higher in that regard, though I do agree the implementation and later scrapping and re-doing of the game ruined any such innovation, but that doesn't change the fact that it was an epoch leap in game design... which ultimately they couldn't carry off.
SOE screwed it up, but it doesn't mean the original design wasn't and isn't what i'm looking for in a next-gen mmo. SOE had it right (at first at least) and if wow hadn't come along, we'd likely still be playing SWG now since they would have fixed the broken things and not have tried to be like wow.
Understand?
excellent clarification. I assumed you meant the finished product.
When people mention SWG most people are referring to what is currently out in retail and the sad fact is that Sony epically failed and improving the game by making it worse. Just goes to show us like with WoW's more recent Patches how many patches are truly necessary to make the game better....stick to adding content and you are on a good path....divert even but a morsel and you ruin it for the masses.....
SO with your rebuttle I am in agreement. Their original product was leaps and bounds closer to a next-gen model MMO but their hands on improvements screwed that up for everyone.
The PC game market is shrinking every year, fewer developers are even gonna bother making games for PC before they make it for a console. Most pc games these days you ask yourself "Can I run it?" No need to ask that question if you have a console, as a matter of fact you don't even need to buy the game, you can just rent it. Ther has become way more cons than pros when it comes to PC games. To bad.
I'm glad you understand. I'm no soe fanboi, but at least initially, they had it right.... they just couldn't pull it off for various reasons.
I WANT that game that recreates and IMPROVES on what soe had to offer initially in SWG. It was good (at first, but definitely needed improvement).
I want complete and utter sandbox.... what they offered was only half-sandbox tho.
Still, it was a good start.
Give me SWG at launch with professions that actually work (mine worked ok for what I chose but many others didn't) and give meTHE CHANCE TO PHYSICALLY ALTER THE WORLD.
I think that point is the next epoch leap in games.... GIVING YOU THE CHANCE TO PHYSICALLY AND PERMANETLY ALTER THE WORLD.
And i am not talking about bad stuff. I'm talking about a platform built to implement new features in a game and storyline friendly way.
For example.... in a game without easy transit, I want to be able to build a railway between point A and point B. Naturally, this is still controlled by the dev's but as a new feature, instead of just making it available on patch day, I want to build it, along with 30-70k of my fellow servermates.
THIS IS NEXT GEN.
Build your platform so you can introduce features and make the players QUEST /MISSION for those features if they want them.
Explicit example: The game has no mass transit or quick transit....the devs build a train system... multiple missions are launched to get all the players to try and help build that train... from laying the track to building the train cars.
That is a world effort that people actually do remember... Yes, it is a one time only quest so to speak but it benefits everybody and 20-30k people must partake in it to complet it (adjust numbers as needed)
If you buiild a system around bulding things... then you immediatly have so much more content.
Another example is building a house. Perhaps you can hire npcs or other players, but you should also need lots of raw materials.... if you don't want to get those materials, yyou should be able to post missions to collecrt them and what you are offering for the product.
Say perhaps I want a mansion today.... um... I'll pay 1000 creds per requir4ed unit to get it built faster versus using npcs who build at 20 creds/ day . adjust creds as needed.
Now that I think about it more... the above IS the next gen mmo.... one that (almost) truly lets us own our wor.ld.
Any changes need to be dev designed of course, but make it missions and progress to implement these newly available features... Don't just let us click a button and use that new train without building it.
PERHAPS this could be the single greatest evoltuion in gaming in allowing us to physically alter the game world.
It's not bad becuse all current players can partake. It's not bad if others later can't (how is it different if the players put it in versus the devs) but the system is good.
LET PLAYERS MAKE AND IMPLEMENT TRULY WORLD CHANGING EVENTS (WITHIN DEV DESIGN).
Let us own our world (or at least pretend to)
I'd much rather build that railway over time than just have it one day... and I want this for all buildable features.
make it take time and some concerted efffort.
Don't just let the house appear, I want to start building and say a week later only to come back and find it's finished. I also want to see the building progress. from timbers to finished product.
I know it sounds hard but it isn't if you build your platform to support it.
You build one platform and you can do railways, airporrts, bases, bus depots, turrets and defenses for pvp,
DAMMIT, just make building an integral part of the mmo.
Darkfall has done NOTHING.
Do you know for certain?
Id say an updated version of Rubies of Eventide. That game has a TON of great stuff going for it but not many people play because of the complexity, outdated graphics, strange combat style, and small community. To me, that is every reason (minus the graphics) to play an MMO. A small community will grow, but the community that you joined with will always be there. Small = helpful.
Anyway, just an updated version of that wouldnt be ground breaking or anything. It would simply get more people to open their eyes and give other MMOs a go. It would certainly introduce very in depth character development that I personally havent seen displayed in many other MMOs.
The next great MMO will be the one closer to WoW's playstyle. People don't want revolutions, even if they think they do.
Ofc it's different crowds... just like RTS and MMORPGs are different markets and yet Blizzard made THE most successfull MMORPG to date.
As for tech-war imo it is already dying down. Crysis anyone? Doom 3? The majority of FPS devs have realized that awesome graphics aren't the end-all of FPSs... The current most popular games in that genre don't play exclusively on the gfx card, the gameplay really is the most important thing - TF2, CS....
We'll see but IMO the FPS guys have it. They'll probably create something that won't even be called a MMORPG... maybe a "COD 5 massive future war" or something like that. They'll probably introduce some parallel crafting/economy/exploration gameplay modes which will be a natural evolution of those already present in some of the recent OFPSs and there you have it!
They are already trying to widen their potential player base so it's not just twitchy headshots anymore. You can play some of the classes in QW:ET almost without firing a shot. Other games are introducing officer mechanics which enable some players to experience the game almost as a RTS with real soldiers... How's that for guild management?! This is very significant change in the way we play online games - the players don't all experience basically the same gameplay - while they share a common "world" they access it from different roles/perspectives. EVE is already doing something like this but in its own quiet way... you can play the game quite meaningfully as a politician, corp manager, merchant - all without actually fighting or even flying around in your spaceship too much. This combined with awesome level design and all the marvelous vehicles and gadgets would really be the "next thing".
/edit
I'm not saying that the next thing will be "twitch based". What I'm saying is that the best chance comes from people who have a fresh perspective on the genre - they'll look at the current state of MMOs and do their own thing influenced by the games from a different genre they did before... The best things usually get produced when there is a cross-fertilization of ideas. If you don't let the fresh blood in you will succumb to the boredom of decadence. And that's what we have now.
EQ established the core MMORPG genre. WoW polished that core, and took out a lot of the boring parts. There is nothing wrong with copying WoW, and making a polished version of EQ over and over. That works in every genre.
How many RTS games did you play? I played a bunch, and it was build a base, gather resources, build units, attack. Different terrain, different units and resources, but that formula over and over.
What about an FPS? Different graphics, different weapons and effects, but point click shoot, over and over.
The problem is, it's hard to make a polished version of EQ. Even the original developer of EQ couldn't do it, and instead released crappy Vanguard.
I don't know what will revolutionize the industry. I'll tell you one thing it won't be is real time combat, ala FPS. We already have great FPS games like Call of Duty 4, and many more in development. There's nothing revolutionary about that.
What I would LIKE to see is the ability to change the world, instead of just my character. Hopefully WAR is going to deliver on that, at least a little bit. I hope it will be successful, and devs will build on this model, as well as the Pre-screwup SWG.
I wouldn't be caught dead playing WoW, simply because it really epitomizes everything that is wrong in the MMO market. Just because millions of people can be conned into playing it doesn't make it worthwhile.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
How can you do anything for your game when there isn't a game out there that does what I want to do?
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None
Why do games have to be revolutionary? Why can't they just be fun to play? That's what a game is for anyway..