Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
What new or improved features are you looking forward to in the 2011-2012 MMO's, and why?
MMO.Maverick
Member CommonPosts: 7,619
There's quite a list of MMO's coming out within the next year or one and a half, also with a number of interesting features that seem to be a break or an upgrade of what's currently out there.
To me, it feels like the MMO genre is finally progressing some more, taking a step further into the next generation of MMO mechanics instead of merely rehashing the old.
Regarding these features and mechanics, this is my list that has me intrigued:
dynamic content (Rift, GW2): events that influence an area, I like it. It makes an area feel more alive and 'real' and less static as in current MMO's. We've seen glimpses of this in MMO's like EQ or TR, but Rift and GW2 take this mechanic to the next level.
World vs World PvP (GW2): GW2's world vs world PvP has the potential to be the worthy successor of DAoC's RvR, with its dynamic events happening in the WvW PvP areas, and stuff like when your world faction loses a mine, its resources won't be sent to your castle anymore (sounds RTS like), guildkeeps, etc.
evinronment-included action combat (Vindictus): I include Vindictus since it hasn't come out yet in Europe. I think its more action oriented combat is one of the best around, if MMO's could include that in an open world, that'd be great: objects in the surroundings can be destroyed or used as a weapon, your possible actions change depending upon the environment and what's near you, the footage looks simply spectacular.
target-based action combat (TERA): another MMO with an evolution of its combat mechanics into more action oriented combat. I think it's a great and natural step forward to the MMO combat and makes you feel more engaged in the combat.
Team combat with interacting/collaborating skills (TSW, GW2): another step forward in team combat, when skills have additional effects based upon other skills that have been used by your teammembers. A knockdown skill that causes an AoE explosion if the target had been set on fire by a prior skill used, an arrow being shot through a fire wall becomes a fire arrow etc.
horror/dark fantasy in a contemporary setting (TSW): this isn't so much a game mechanic or feature, but remarkable enough to be mentioned. The Secret World has what I think the best theme/setting so far encountered in an MMORPG, especially exceptional compared to the same old fantasy/scifi settings and themes. TSW takes place in a modern day world, but then with a Lovecraft/Stephen King tilt, where secret societies, horror and fantasy are present in abundance, and all the known urban legends, myths, and conspiracy theories have proven to be true. The X-Files mixed in with Supernatural and Lovecraft's Cthulhu world? Sign me up!
MMOFPS (Firefall): I've seen the demo video, it looked stunning. I liked playing Planetside, Firefall seems to fall in the same category of MMO with shooter like combat, what's even more, that attack of that NPC town by that horde of aliens and that gigantic alien monster at the end of that video looked simply spectacular.
Upgrade of questing to story immersive questing (GW2, SWTOR, TSW): I think the signs are there already that current questing mechanics and quest-based level progression, it has started to become outdated, its time is slowly passing, just like mob grinding before it. It's still the main means of level progression though, and that's why you see a number of MMO dev teams try to stray away from the current, textwall-only, quest mechanics. Blizzard revamped questing into being more story oriented and non-standard in CATA, and you also see the companies of upcoming MMO's like GW2, TOR and TSW doing their thing to make level progression by questing more interesting by adding more game elements that can be seen singleplayer RPG's, like RPG background info that influences the quests you encounter, cinematic cutscenes and choices you make that have a different impact and result upon questlines you encounter afterwards.
Politics (TERA): I only read a bit about it, but it sounds interesting how it' works.
multiple scenario dungeons (GW2): I like how in GW2 you can do a dungeon yourself first as part of your continuing Personal Story/quest progression, but after that the dungeon can have all kinds of different scenarios and content when you do it with groups, not just the same dungeon over and over again.
And some features that aren't new but that I'll be looking forward to:
- large, vast worlds that can be explored (GW2, SW:TOR)
- naval combat (Arche Age)
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
More story driven content (SWTOR) for me.
I'll probably buy GW2; only cause I liked GW1 and my friends will heavily suggest I play it with them. -.-
What I am interested in is the fusion of the different genre and MMOs.
Granted, they haven't been all that successful (FPS+MMO like Planetside, although PS:Next seems cool) but hopefully more will try and expand the MMO genre.
What is very intriguing is Activision saying stuff like 'we want a sub based call of duty'. MMO CoD? O_O
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
The PVE changing world content is a big hyped balloon.
It already bursted in Rift's beta for a lot of players, since there is no tuning. It all passes over the heads of everyone.
It is either frustrating (too few players) or boring (off by 800% original tuning). Or as some might say: PVE untuned zerg fest without personal satisfaction. In a time where Blizzard is raged upon for a 5 %buff or nerf, it is amusing to see people are trying to hype this stuff which is not even tuned at all.
I don't believe GW2 will better the system either, since you can never do anything about a player willingness to participate.
World PvP with cross server BG's is not world PvP: you'll have to queue for it and wait till the instance is "filled"
.I only believe in the single story telling feature and controlled tuned mechanics for each avatar.
I do believe in a Call of Duty MMO as the next big thing.I don't believe in Rift, GW2 for the above reasons.
While I think that finetuning of the rifts in a general sense (make them more varied and unpredictable) will make it better, not everything has to be tuned to the inch for each encounter to be fun.
The world vs world PvP in GW2, if that's what you're referring to, the Mists doesn't need people to queue up to fill the instance, it isn't like WoW's battlegrounds, far from: the Mists is an ongoing 3-sided weeklong battle, where uneven numbers of people enter and depart continuously.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
A game without decent and controlled tuning is not even a game. Be that PvP or PVE.
That's the only challenge for the future years.
Potential is one thing, delivering is a complete other story and one that's been breeding for 6 years long.
MMOFPS, hopfully in the form of PlanetSide Next.
SKYeXile
TRF - GM - GW2, PS2, WAR, AION, Rift, WoW, WOT....etc...
Future Crew - High Council. Planetside 1 & 2.
I look forward to more interesting combat which will come more from MMOFPS type games and hopefully a return of virtual worlds. This year is going to be huge on 'Dynamic content' which is good but depends on how dynamic it can be.
Its all about the dynamic group focused, open world content.
Time to take our genre back away from the pitiful wannabe solo rpg focus of todays mmorpgs.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
The "dynamic focused, open world content" will be the failure of the year by the simple fact they are boring.
Downing a boss or elite spawn designed with X health with a group of 5,10, 20, 40, or 60 can only lead to 2 possible outcomes.
You down it with ease (500% off tuning) or the thing simply rolls over you. In either case it is boring and not a personal challenge.
It is the way the "old and gone" MMO's were designed back in a time where programming techniques were archaic in on line play. If anyone thinks this is the "new" way to go, they have no clue about game play and personal satisfaction.
It is the same as saying: "hey look I want to simulate a battle, but instead of placing the tin soldiers and rolling some dice, here I use this sledge hammer and blow the table to pieces."
The so called scaling of things is out of proportion in every "world" case as you can't predict the (non) willingness of people sitting in the same zones and just "shrug" when yet another roller coaster comes and goes around.
Games have to be tuned these days. The above content already was passed on years ago.
If im not mistaken some skills in GW2 will use the envirement as well, like the elementalist using rocks and such to start an earthquake or something
Also in GW2 its 3 worlds in pvp not 2
dynamic content
World vs World PvP
Team combat with interacting/collaborating skills
multiple scenario dungeons
Thes are by far my most favorite upcoming features.
Also looking forward to Firefall when it comes out.
Server vs Server vs Server is what Im looking forward the most
GW2 is gonna own
It's clear you don't like this mechanics, thus your're downplaying and ridiculing it by using extreme examples, but the argument is nonsensical. They're just mobs that get to be spawned, as soon as you see a group you decide with how many you take it on or not. I mean, static mobs can be zerged too, just go duo equal level mobs or take on a mob 10 levels higher with a group just because you want to explore an area.
Saying that dynamic content is boring while at the same glorifying a static environment with static mobs where nothing ever changes is somewhat puzzling, but tastes differ. As for whether it'll be a failure or not, I guess we'll see, but my guess is it'll be successful and liked very much.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
[Mod Edit]
The real challenge for MMO's will be:
- clustered grouping of servers/players which offers more changing content, more spread out with far more players.
- individual progression within that changing content based on various factors, the most imprtant being scaled and tuned for the avatars in question.
- dynamic story telling but adapted to the individual avatar you are playing.
The odd thing is that nobody can make this happen with present day techniques used. But slowly and steady we'll be there.
SW:TOR is the next step and the new Blizzard's project will probably combine some of the above in a still crude but playable form. Even GW2 cross server BG's is a step in the right direction.
An example: you play a space game where planets change status according to the things your avatar does, the content will be adapted to your progression and I would call it a "global phasing cross server game mechanic".
The word instance will even dissapear when you combine the possibilites of huge server clusters and the newest (both grouped and individual) phasing technology.
Within the next few years this will be the evolution. Not some "going back to world PVE" in which 1000 players mean a world.
The other 2 points I understand and agree with, but can you give an example of "clustered grouping of servers/players which offers more changing content", what do you mean with that one?
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
I used the space game example. The problem of MMO's has always been the number of players which are far from "massive". The tric is to regroup players by clustering servers throughout the content. In that way you can have several alternate realities for a huge number of players, each following their own story telling within a changing content module.
Your personal avatar actions towards a given city of a planet could make it "friendly", "neutral", "hostile"," war like" etc, just like a solo RPG in a dynamic way (and changing according to your actions), but thanks to the clustered grouping of servers and phasing technology you create a different perspective and content that is still being played massively... and still has the advantage of being tuned to your avatar (challenge) whatever its "level".
The MMO of the future will be played by millions in the same world with different realities. The 1000 player realms will be a thing of the past.
The problem with your "global phasing cross server game mechanic" is that WoW already proved that phasing isn't the way to go and has just about taken the Massively Multiplayer out of the game. This is the problem everybody had with gw1, everything was instanced and tailored to your character personally and that caused everybody (even ArenaNet the makers) to call it a CORPG because it took away the Massively Multiplayer aspect.
Dynamic events.
WvWvW-PvP.
Trinity pwnage.
Non-Everquesty combat.
This.
Earthquakes, snowavalanche, tornados, vulcano eruptions or tsunamis all these nature desasters that actually chance game world and influence gameplay of players.
Or when its raining the ground realy get muddy and hard to walk on or when it snows you see it growing on ground or rain realy leaves little pools behind.
Insects swarms or roaming packs of wolfs running around world or mobs comepeting with players for land and also build structures.
More intelligent npc's that actually have there own lifes and realy give feel they are alife also for mobs and dont stand still like satues waiting for you.
Games played:AC1-Darktide'99-2000-AC2-Darktide/dawnsong2003-2005,Lineage2-2005-2006 and now Darkfall-2009.....
In between WoW few months AoC few months and some f2p also all very short few weeks.
I am most curious about Bioware's story telling and how it will integrate into a MMOG.
Everything else we have seen before in one form or another.
I don't really get worked up about "improved" features in any game ro genre till I acutally get to play with them.Things that llok good on paper or viewd in a move don't always turn out to work in practice or be improvements at all.In th end I onyl care that a game is entertaining.
Charecter Aging: Xsyon
Terraforming/Building/Digging Changing Landscape: Xsyon
These 2 features alone are hardly ever heard of in mmo's, real innovation not repeated wash water. Rare gems like this break the mold on the genre and I think something new is needed in the stale industry not rinse repeat cookie cutter games.
I am really looking forward to the dynamic content in GW2 which really seems like it could feel like playing a part in a story as opposed to the game suddenly puking out a bunch of mobs into an area to create dynamic content.
I am really looking forward to trying out some of the new combat mechanics in TERA and GW2, to see which of them I will prefer. Out of all things that I want to see drastic improvements in, it's combat mechanics.
I want to see some stunning graphics, something beyond AoC. Both GW2 and Tera seem pretty decent, I hope that I can crank up the graphics even more then what we are seeing in the screens.
I want to see great character customization, better then anything that has been released to date.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
That's what I think is missing in MMORPG's as well, I got a taste of it in EQ, real dark nights that needed a torch and snow storms but I haven't seen it since in MMORPG's: weather effects that influenced or effected the environment.
I wouldn't mind things like having to clothe for winter areas or to be wary of tornados, or a storm that effected your sight but also your character if you weren't careful.
Also, mobs just standing still seems so old fashioned and could be done better. GW2 introduces it with their event system, but things like in Ryzom where herds could be migrating and such sounds far more like a living, breathing ecology ingame than what we have so far.
As for Xsyon, I heard only 1 person made most of it. While it sounds like a nice to-the-side game, I don't really see it like the main MMO to spend most of my MMO gaming time in. At least, for me.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Check out there page for a list of developers and crew with well respected degree's IMO that help shape the game. Yea it may be one guy who started it, but from what ive read its the dream game he has always wanted to sit down and play. And I must say whats offered is more innovation not seen since UO and EQ days. Cookie cutter it is not. Uniqueness brings its own flavor.