The genre still has millions of players up for grabs. 10's of millions in the East. I mean, think about that - one of the biggest MMOs in Asia is still Lineage 1. Lineage 1.
Insane.
Anyways, I think the next big thing is going to come in the form of some technological advancement. Something that transcends the whole limited client/server architecture.
I've always held the dream that truly intelligent AI in games is the only thing that can make a MMO truly live up to the potential of this genre.
I mean, imagine an MMORPG where every NPC was intelligent enough to engage the player in meaningful ways. It's better than pure player to player interaction because you can control the illusion to deliver exceptional gameplay experiences. (because players tend to be dicks to each other.)
Who knows. Maybe in 10 years cloud distributed architecture will allow for that level of dynamic AI interaction to create true simulated realities that are both vibrant virtual worlds AND fun, engaging games to play with (and against) your friends.
Actually sounds like the kind of "out there" thing Amazon would be working on.
Anyways, I think the next big thing is going to come in the form of some technological advancement. Something that transcends the whole limited client/server architecture.
You know Bill Gates and Microsoft mentioned this actually many years ago.Bill was hinting at some new ideas for gaming that would introduce what we know now as Cloud gaming as well as other technology ideas.
He was accurate on all accounts because his other mention was that we would no longer need PC's just a keyboard and internet as well as no configuring just easy login and play.
OK so he got all the technology side of things totally correct but we still need a really good game developer,willing to do it right,spend some money and do the whole thing FAIR as to not try and create an idea to rip us off.
What i feel SHOULD happen is this.... First of all a developer should be honest with us.Make a really good game and incorporate a sub fee of say $25/mnth.The game should NOT be expected to break even for at least a year or two, the 25/mnth would help recoup the investment.While they are recouping their investment "here goes the HONESTY thing"they charge us for any and all expansions/content updates.However once they begin to profit sub fee drops to 15 and/or they keep it at 25 but all content at least 1 full expansion a year is FREE.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
A Fallout MMO?, NO! Absolutely not, at least not by Zeni. As a purely PC player, I wouldn't touch anything they put out for PC. They fooled me once and won't do so again. I'm forever done with Zenimax.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Amazon? Looks like they're continuing to focus on their mobile initiatives, and it would hardly be the first time we've seen big name talent from MMO's move to work on mobile projects.
What will 2016 bring? Right now it looks like nada. Would be awesome if some big hitters came out sometime this year to say, open beta starts up next month. Release in 3 months. Enjoy!!!! Guess all we can do is wait and see. Nice read btw thanks!!!!
Good speculative article! I'm not really sure which company is going to try next, but someone is going to try making a new mmo at some point in the future. Not sure if borderlands would work too well and fallout would likely go the way of H1Z1 or some other survival type game, but an original IP and maybe a smaller scope could do it.
What WoW did : they did not compete with EQ. I was reading an info-graphic about WoW on massively and i found out that WoW had been in development at the same time as EQ. It was not called WoW though and the name was not yet decided, Blizzard did a press conference to show off their new game right after EQ release and people were not thrilled about it at all, it was after all just another 3D online rpg that would improve upon UO which EQ was already doing. They directly said that they are not interested in another EQ and EQ was all that players need as their 3D online rpg. So blizzard just waited out, changed their design decision and let people get tired of FFA type settings. And it seemed people were really getting tired of what the market has to offer they announced their 2 faction conflict based WoW that offers epic PvE and a engaging open world PvP. After that it was just riding the flow.
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
The big money is now translating and converting those big money Korean/Asian MMOs into Western ports.....Lost Ark Online, Bless Online, Black Desert Online, Icarus Online, etc, etc....
"you can’t replicate what WoW managed to do"
I would rather say: you can’t replicate what Ragnarok Online managed to do...
Why you ask? No MMORPG has ever managed to make anything close to that lvling, class, stat, job, skill system ever. Its true that there are many better MMO's out there with way better combat system and mechanics, but the basics of RO is still the best after 15 years.
Borderlands has the best lore and base to pull off an MMORPG. The setting is perfect where the player isn't a chosen one per say, they're just an ark/vault hunter in a world of other hunters/bandits. The skill system is a pretty solid base to expand and deepen. They have different classes to play on. They understand the loot system already. Crafting can be integrated especially with how crazy the weapon/shield system is. There's vehicles, I can see housing being a thing. All the pieces are pretty much laid out to create something pretty cool.
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
They've got a good history with MMOs, most have been successful in their own way, even if they aren't blockbuster. Its been a while they last released an MMO so they are "due".
I do believe that the success of ESO on consoles will have opened up the way for more developers to start pushing console releases. There hasn't been any big successes on PC for years now, but ESO sold many millions of copies on consoles which should open the eyes of other big publishers to the lucrative possibilities. I think it far more likely that we'll start seeing traditionally console-focused developers start moving into the MMO world.
With that in mind, my wishlist includes:
* Gears of War Online
* GTA Online (proper MMO, not what shipped with V)
* Hyrule Online
Eso hasn't sold many millions on consoles, the most successful mmo on xb1 is NeverWinter Online and on PS4 it is Eso but it's not millions of players.
ESO sold for sure 3mil copies on PS4, and probably 2mil on Xbox.
@Torval I agree, we all say we want "massive" but too massive is never what is desired. I hope technology really starts to advance where they can make the worlds large enough so we can all play in the same space without out it looking silly.
"As far as the forum code of conduct, I would think it's a bit outdated and in need of a refre *CLOSED*"
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Amazon is heavily focused on mobile
Gearbox has Borderlands 3 and Battleborn
Zenimax has ESO
Riot makes a lot from LoL and Tencent will probably make the mmo while Riot focuses on what they do make and make more maps and game modes
Did you really just ninja that other forum poster's thread topic without giving him any credit?
He did say in that thread something along the lines of this was coincidently the topic of his upcoming article.
Coincidentally. OK, benefit of the doubt this time.
It's the truth. Ask @SBFord I wrote the article yesterday.
I am that other poster, but I am sure Bill was already working on his article. Bill is a good guy and he has much better content in his article than I had in my feeble little post.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
It is always fun to speculate. The speculation direction and people referred to smells like the usual story driven themepark, but if they really have learned not to be wow-formula clones this sound a bit contradictory.
Are mmo's really lucrative still ? Except a small handful, It seem like we have a recent history of mmo's not looking like they will spawn expansions and expensive productions that can't pull in the numbers after the initial launch.. maybe I am wrong?
Anyways some speculation from here, not which game companies but rather some IP/game-company coop'ing that could be up for mmo-milking.
- The Walking Dead is a world open enough to support a game that is not locked to the characters and story and therefore good for a mmorpg.. Yes there are plenty of Zombie survival games but still?
- Game of Thrones although not as suited for a mmorpg, the popularity alone might be enough to get it developed?
- One of the numerous successful card games turning mmorpg?
- More Asian style mmo'ish games based on popular IP's. Not sure which are big and popular? cause I am not very interested in those, but I know the amount of gamers and money are huge.
I have my doubts that any well funded large studio is working on a classic MMORPG at this point. The real money for those studios is in mobile are moba garbage.
Classic MMORPG's with depth and community will be made by studios with passion but very little funding. It's unfortunate, but that's just the way it is.
The question really is - do we even want another large studio trying to make another MMO at this point? I certainly don't if the bean counters and focus groups are the foundation and decision makers.
Comments
The genre still has millions of players up for grabs. 10's of millions in the East. I mean, think about that - one of the biggest MMOs in Asia is still Lineage 1. Lineage 1.
Insane.
Anyways, I think the next big thing is going to come in the form of some technological advancement. Something that transcends the whole limited client/server architecture.
I've always held the dream that truly intelligent AI in games is the only thing that can make a MMO truly live up to the potential of this genre.
I mean, imagine an MMORPG where every NPC was intelligent enough to engage the player in meaningful ways. It's better than pure player to player interaction because you can control the illusion to deliver exceptional gameplay experiences. (because players tend to be dicks to each other.)
Who knows. Maybe in 10 years cloud distributed architecture will allow for that level of dynamic AI interaction to create true simulated realities that are both vibrant virtual worlds AND fun, engaging games to play with (and against) your friends.
Actually sounds like the kind of "out there" thing Amazon would be working on.
Next time you write something good i'll be more careful with my praise, i promise
You know Bill Gates and Microsoft mentioned this actually many years ago.Bill was hinting at some new ideas for gaming that would introduce what we know now as Cloud gaming as well as other technology ideas.
He was accurate on all accounts because his other mention was that we would no longer need PC's just a keyboard and internet as well as no configuring just easy login and play.
OK so he got all the technology side of things totally correct but we still need a really good game developer,willing to do it right,spend some money and do the whole thing FAIR as to not try and create an idea to rip us off.
What i feel SHOULD happen is this....
First of all a developer should be honest with us.Make a really good game and incorporate a sub fee of say $25/mnth.The game should NOT be expected to break even for at least a year or two, the 25/mnth would help recoup the investment.While they are recouping their investment "here goes the HONESTY thing"they charge us for any and all expansions/content updates.However once they begin to profit sub fee drops to 15 and/or they keep it at 25 but all content at least 1 full expansion a year is FREE.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm not an IT Specialist, Game Developer, or Clairvoyant in real life, but like others on here, I play one on the internet.
Take something that someone else does and do it better.
And just like Blizzard, they would recoup their development costs just from their name alone.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
Boobs are LIFE, Boobs are LOVE, Boobs are JUSTICE, Boobs are mankind's HOPES and DREAMS. People who complain about boobs have lost their humanity.
I would rather say: you can’t replicate what Ragnarok Online managed to do...
Why you ask? No MMORPG has ever managed to make anything close to that lvling, class, stat, job, skill system ever. Its true that there are many better MMO's out there with way better combat system and mechanics, but the basics of RO is still the best after 15 years.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
ESO sold for sure 3mil copies on PS4, and probably 2mil on Xbox.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Gearbox has Borderlands 3 and Battleborn
Zenimax has ESO
Riot makes a lot from LoL and Tencent will probably make the mmo while Riot focuses on what they do make and make more maps and game modes
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
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EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Are mmo's really lucrative still ? Except a small handful, It seem like we have a recent history of mmo's not looking like they will spawn expansions and expensive productions that can't pull in the numbers after the initial launch.. maybe I am wrong?
Anyways some speculation from here, not which game companies but rather some IP/game-company coop'ing that could be up for mmo-milking.
- The Walking Dead is a world open enough to support a game that is not locked to the characters and story and therefore good for a mmorpg.. Yes there are plenty of Zombie survival games but still?
- Game of Thrones although not as suited for a mmorpg, the popularity alone might be enough to get it developed?
- One of the numerous successful card games turning mmorpg?
- More Asian style mmo'ish games based on popular IP's. Not sure which are big and popular? cause I am not very interested in those, but I know the amount of gamers and money are huge.
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
Classic MMORPG's with depth and community will be made by studios with passion but very little funding. It's unfortunate, but that's just the way it is.
The question really is - do we even want another large studio trying to make another MMO at this point? I certainly don't if the bean counters and focus groups are the foundation and decision makers.