Sure, the Avengers was good. And we’re all excited about the upcoming finale to the Dark Knight series. But with all the superhero movies out there, aren’t you just a little tired of them? Well, maybe only tired of the bad ones, but that’s another story. Today, the Commodore reflects on your thoughts about superhero movies and offers a few insights of his own. After that, it’s on to a question for next week about the future (and past) of online games. it’s the Weekly Wringer!
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As technology grows, so to will interactivity within technology. Facebook and MySpace are perfect examples of the this trend. An experience where people can gather is a very lucrative and happening experience. WoW and its followers will continue this trend as we grown more and more integrated with our daily life with the computers. I can easily foresee MMOs on consoles within the next few year not just online multiplayer.
Hadn’t heard about this until today. Interesting. And whenever I think about Curt Schilling, I don’t see his face. I see a bloody sock.
Regardless, DO NOT INVEST IN A COMPANY DEVELOPING AN MMO. Why? Because the philosophy of “killing WoW” is not going to work. That isn’t Blizzard fanboyism, because I think Activision leaves much to be desired, but just listen to what I have to say.
I read an article the other day. Let me go grab it from Reddit…
Ok, 20 minutes later, here’s the link:
http://www.rascalcast.com/blogs/pandette/can-we-stop-calling-them-wow-killers
If you’re not up for reading it, the gist of the article was that so many MMOs fail because they try to be “WoW Killers.”
It goes on to mention many of the missteps BioWare’s Star Wars MMO had when it came to trying to kill WoW. Then it discusses the issues many other MMOs had when it came to their implementation. It ended with what Blizzard does right to maintain not only its MMO supremacy, but in other arenas as well.
One of the biggest problems is that companies are using their retail launch as a beta test. Bethesda has always done this (which is going to bite them in the ass when their Elder Scrolls MMO launches). Sony did it with DC Universe. Square Enix is still desperately trying to correct their biggest mistake ever with Final Fantasy 14. BioWare did this to an extent (even though their major problems were elsewhere).
If you want to solidify your place in the MMO realm, you cannot identify yourself as a WoW killer. You have to strike out and come up with an original idea. That is, if you don’t want to be relegated to MMO history, like every other post-WoW MMO.
But at the same time, other than WoW, you have Dark Age of Camelot (which so many people are still playing) and Everquest. So with those three, WoW, DaoC and EQ, they’re going to live on and do represent the future of online gaming. Why? Because all three of them acted as a natural progression of the genre.
If you want to continue the genre, then you have to continue to perfect and refine what an MMO is. Not focus solely on userping the current title holder.
I actually have quite a bit to say about Curt Shilling regarding politics but I somehow doubt you’d want to hear it. It would involve the word hippocrit quite a bit.
Moving onto the issue at hand, whether or not MMORPGS are the future or history of online gaming, I would have to say that they are, indeed, the future. (unfortunately)
Think back to the mid 90s and our crappy dial up connections and what that meant for the internet back then. Remember how ugly and cumbersome it all was? Now the internet is always on from our phones to our gaming consoles and of course our PCs. We are more connected than we ever have been and our ability to interact with others socially through technology is multi-billion dollar industry. When you take that into consideration, of course people are going to sustain their desire for a gaming environment in which to interact and lose themselves in. While it can be argued that just about any online game could give you that, MMORPGS have the dinstinctive advantage of creating a large, fully populated world full of not only gameplay NPCs and quests but full of other players as well. In the same way that facebook is a valuable commodity because they are selling “you” MMORPGS are a valuable commodity because they are selling a product that connects you to a fully realised world populated with real people. (players.)
I personally think that MMOs are the future of video gamming, which does not excite me. My entire elementry and middle school freetime was spent playing Runescape as I had a computer that could not handle WoW. Though I found it fun ineracting with other people enjoying the same game as me, I’ve always been more of a solitary gamer. I much rather play a game with a strong single player, such as Assassin’s Creed or God of War, than one with a strong multiplayer with a weak single player such as Gears of War or most other FPS of today. If what companies are doing now is any indication of the future though, the latter of those two game types are winning. I see the draw of playing with multiple people, but I much rather it be people I know while in the same room with them. Most games seem to feel like they have to have a tacked on multiplayer mode just to get people to buy, which I hate. As far as MMOs like WoW go, however, I agree with Lord of Nothing. You are NOT going to create one that will kill WoW, you just aren’t. I myself never played, but I have many friends who have poured countless hours into the game. When someone invests that much time in something, you aren’t going to dangle some different form of it in front of them and have them leave the previous one without it being totally mind-blowing.
Thingking about it, I”m actually going to go against the grain on this one.
While MMO’s will always have a place in gaming, I can’t say that they are the ‘future’ of gaming. They will always be present, so they won’t be ‘History’ either. With mobile and casual gaming making taking bigger and bigger bites of the gaming pie, it’s something you need to consider.
Now before I go further as much as this may seem silly to do I think that we need to properly Define MMO.
Massively Multiplayer Online: When does Multiplayer become massive?
Is a 32 player Deathmatch MMO? No, But some people Consider Planetside (400 max) or MAG (256 Max) to be MMOs.
- How many people Makes it Massive?
What about social interaction, I’m Sure Thousands of people play games like farmville. But there’s limited social interaction inside the game beyond sending /receiving gifts and posting a begging plea for more fertalizer or something. They got the numbers but I don’t think these are MMO’s either. These are ultimately single player games that people play together.
- What level of social interaction creates an MMO?
Now there are some of these Facebook type games and browser games which I would consider to be an MMO. But in them you directly interact with other people, either by attacking, defending, or sharing resources.
Suddenly it’s not as simple a task as one might think. As a quick and easy rule though I’m going to go with this: If there is an in game way to form a guild (troupe, alliance, warband, etc…) Then it’s probably an MMO (though i’m sure there are exceptions out there).
With that out of the way back to the point of this weeks wringer. Are MMO’s the future? no, Do they have a place in the future, absolutely. They are here to stay, but it’ll take its portion of the market and keep going. Over time it will probably shrink some more in the face of mobile and casual gamers. But I don’t think it’ll ever shrink to the point of being a niche market.
Online RPGs, as I call them, will always have a place in history; by definition, they do. This is can be emphasized especially by games such as World of WarCraft, Everquest, final Fantasy XI, etc., and other companies that tried to develop ‘WarCraft Killers.’ Yeah, how’s that workin’ for ya?
As far as if they’re The Future of gaming, well, I think we’ll see them for a long time; it’s just another genre/type of gaming that will probably always be around in some form. One thing that seems to be changing though is a lot of companies are either straight out developing theirs as immediately free to play, or changing their games from subscription to free to play. It’s a trend right now, and one reason is possibly because subscriptions to online RPGs are dropping off. Blizzard often reports falling numbers, especially when a new expansion isn’t out yet. Hell, even The Old Republic is reportedly losing subscribers lately. Many gamers seem more willing to try something if they don’t have to bother paying for it, and well, if extra content is pay only, well, then they don’t have to do anything if they don’t want to. That’s typically pretty fair.
I would suggest that online RPGs will probably reach a stalling point eventually, as most overpopulated genres eventually do, generally. It will just become too crowded, as if it already isn’t, and ‘the bubble’ may ‘burst’ on the genre. Again, trends change, popularity often changes (or at least, ‘red hot’ status changes when ‘The Next Big Thing’ comes along), and I suppose eventually you’ll see a l ot less focus on the genre as we know it today. Perhaps in time, in will become revitalized somehow, as we also see happen sometimes. For example, retro is in, so you do see games that are callbacks to old-school, platform gaming; naturally, the New Super Mario Bros. games are examples of that. Perhaps the genre will evolve into something different, actually, as interactivity changes. That’s hard to really predict though, but it’s possible.
As a whole, MMO’s are here to stay. Sadly what is considered a success in the gaming world almost requires it. How many games get beaten down by reviewers and critics simply for not having multi player, let alone being massive multi player. Now, the form in which MMO’s take will change significantly in the not too distant future. If Guild Wars 2 becomes a big hit, then it is going to be difficult for companies to justify the monthly fee. Personally I think a monthly fee is a scam, but regardless this will force MMOs to do things differently. We will see more things like Minecraft, which is a MMO by the way, where you can host your own server. Sort of going full circle to a time before MMOs became popular. We will see more SIM like MMOs….sadly.
I also believe that we are in for a MMO crash of sorts. There are too many MMO games out there and not enough people to fill them. It won’t kill the industry, but it will redefine it.
WoW is a fluke. It’s success isn’t because of how great the game is, but the social aspects. Lose enough players it will kill the game. Everquest can still be fun with a small number of people, WoW cannot. There will be a WoW killer, think WoW is MySpace and the killer being Facebook. However, it won’t be gamers that decide it, thats why games like SWTOR,GW2,and Terra won’t kill it. They will show however the number of people playing WoW that aren’t what we would call gamers, by in large at least.
I disagree a lot with Mr. K, but he’s spot on here. Ending WoW’s reign WILL NOT come from trying to make a game that is more or less trying to just leech off WoW’s success. People leave to try out these new games (Rift, Star Wars, Guild Wars), but it seems like they always go back to WoW after a month or two.
WoW still has a huge userbase (although people are leaving it a bit), and MMOs are entirely about the community….right? Could an MMO be more single player oriented, but give you the satisfaction of just being with people (even if you don’t want to interact with them much)? I suppose but I don’t think that is what most want, nor do I think it would make much money for a company.
The thing about WoW specifically is that people have invested a ton of time into the game. People don’t seem to enjoy starting back at square one when they have invested years of time to getting the top gear, mathing out the “perfect talent build” etc. I’ll be honest, the WoW beta era was the most fun I had when I played the game (I played WoW from the beta to about mid 2006), because the game was fresh and new. But most seem to enjoyed the game the most when they were the highest level and raiding with a guild. That, however, has finally gotten stale to them.
What WoW did was it tapped into an relatively untapped market. Before WoW, MMOs (I’d say the big four being Ultima, EQ, Asheron’s Call, and FF11) were labeled as “nerds only”, “evercrack” etc. Then WoW made it accepted somehow. They took an existing franchise, watered down the MMO gameplay a little bit for more casual people, and tried to de-nerdify the marketing and game experience (admit it, nobody role played on the RP servers, everyone made fun of how GMs responded to you in game, etc). Conbine that with a little bit of luck that 2004 was the year that MMOs finally were ready to enter the mainstream, and you got the success that is WoW.
Companies now try to remake WoW, instead of doing what WoW did. It tapped into an untapped market.
I think MMOs are a major part of the future of gaming. But I think the next big craze will be something more like EVE online. EVE right now is still a really niche community, but the template the game has could be extremely popular if modified for the untapped audience. Its completely player driven, is a game with fewer rules and less hand holding, and you can research upgrades and accomplish goals even when you are not logged in (research points are accumulated while logged in, but also while logged off). The biggest flaws with EVE right now are mostly how you are confined to a ship (people like humanoid avatars imo), and how complex the game is at even the earliest stages of the game. Maybe a bit faster paced combat could be ideal as well.
Enough playing up EVE though. I’ll just say that business is about cost efficient risks with untapped markets. Video games appear to be no different.
Oh I absolutely believe that MMOs are not only part of the history of gaming but also the future. I come out of this with the explosion of Free-to-Play games.
On the whole loan thing – I really think that was a bad move, but MMOs are not.
Since I’ve started watching Chaos D1′s show “MMO Grinder”, I’ve become aware that there is an MMO for just about everything, not just high adventure and Sci-Fi. There’s MMO beat-em-ups, Strategies, Fantasy Sports, Racing, you name it.
Oh, but you need a solid financial base, right? Well, that’s where Cash Shops come in, and even WOW deals in them.
(For those not in the know, Cash Shops offer items or services for players that offer in game benefits or aesthetics, so your level 25 mage doesn’t look like everyone else’s level 25 mage. The best cash shops offer benefits that don’t create a “Pay-to-win” experience where the person with the most CS items always win, but allow things like bonus EXP or extra bag slots)
Because of Cash Shops, many smaller MMOs exist that I doubt would live as subscription based. I don’t want to pay $10-15 a month for something I don’t feel I’m playing often enough or long enough to warrent that kind of money. But that CS offering of the new luxury pet or bonus EXP so I can level easier, well that makes me feel better that I’m contributing to server maintinence, but not forced to pay to continue.
And finally, where does that leave the MMOs that die? Well, as abandonware, they can be reclaimed, licences picked up. One of the games that the MMO Grinder did recently was “Myst Online”. I didn’t even know that existed. Thanks to fans donating their time, talents and money, Myst Online does indeed exist online. Not to mention that games could be modded to create a single player experience, thus making MMOs in the future still viable as single player campaigns (Assuming that they were abandoned or picked up and redistributed by different companies.)
And in a way, even games that aren’t traditional MMOs, like Team Fortress and such, still carry the same ideals of multiplayer interaction over long distances. My problem has been finding an MMO that’s right for me, and that’s where shows like the Grinder really help, because you know what? It really is a mixed bag out there. But the same can be said of any gaming genre.
P.S.: The terms which I use to define a “MMO” is along the lines of CD1′s – a game with a leveling system, exp, an upgrade system, usually a talent tree, and of course, the ability to have more than 4 people populate the screen/game/server at one time, typically through a host server. They also tend to have chat options via keyboard.
Me personally I never found Wow very fun or basically any other MMO. I grew up on games like Final Fantasy 2 and 3 for the SNES and also the Phantasy Star Series on Sega. What always drew me in were the people and the stories. It could have the worst graphics in the world, but if it told a really good story I was hooked. Not saying that those games had bad graphics just making a point. Granted I didn’t socialize much on Wow or any other games and stuck to solo which may have taken from the experience, but I like playing solo. Which is why I’ve been an Elder Scrolls fan since Daggerfall. (By the way I dread that they are making that multiplayer) Good or bad I probably won’t pick it up. I always hated shelling out 60 bucks for a game and having to pay 15 or 20 bucks a month just to keep playing. I remember playing Dark Forces II on the PC and playing in those rooms and it was cumbersome but I did enjoy messing with people and I could do it for free.
Second Life, yeah!
lol
I’m new here but felt I wanted to contribute to this discussion.
Davabanjo talked about how he grew up with games like Final Fantasy 2 and 3 and Phantasy Star series and how they were great because of the story lines in those games. Every once in a while I will go on a Super Nintendo binge where I play a lot of the old RPGs that I grew up with (only the RPGS have stood the test of time, the rest suck), I will even try to get in on so of the other games that I missed, like Secret of Mana that I started playing (Never much cared for it when I was a kid but Secret of Evermore is one of my favorite games of all time so I thought I would give Mana a shot). (Side note, love me some 16 bit gems). Anyway these are where the games were at, this was most certainly the Golden Age of video games.
Yeah you have great games like Call of Duty and Mass Effect, which are fantastic games but they all seem to be missing something, even in Mass Effect where you have a story line, it feels lacking. The games today do not stand up to games from the past. Now whether we want it to or not MMORPGs are becoming the thing of the future because as the rest of the world becomes connected, the gaming community doesn’t want to be left behind, we want to meet people from other countries, who even just recently seemed so foreign, and realize that they have the same interests as us.
The problem I see is that these games are way too expansive to be even enjoyable, yes WOW is guilty of this as well. I played WOW for a month or so and didn’t really care for the game, it was just too big, I really hate the fact that the only way to get anywhere is to have a high level friend power level you to a place where you can actually enjoy the game. Enemies are too far and between to enjoy having fights. The things with the Super Nintendo, yes the games were sometimes grindfests at times but you didn’t have long inbetween going from one area to another to advance the story line.
A typical RPG from the SNES age took maybe 25 hours for a very good game and longer if you wanted to spend some time on the side quests and when you were done you felt incredibly satisfied. Now I understand that you want a game like WOW to last a long time because you are going to be on the game longer but why does it have to be that way.
Why can’t they make an MMO game that goes back to the original RPG style of gaming?
What I mean by this is that they should make a game where they have mutiple people in a group, all played by an individual and they have to work in a group in order to complete the story line but they can also go off on their own to complete side quests to help them selves advance or get better equipment but require that in order to finish the story line you have to have the entire party playing at the same time. But don’t make the game so expansive that it takes 30 min to just run from town to town, make it so an individual can do side quests in 30 min to 1 hour maybe up to two hours for the more difficult side quests, then have the main story line take into account some of the decisions that were made in these side quests in order to build the main story to completion.
For a full example of what I mean, think Mass Effect MMO, at least there you would be making decisions often enough to not be boring as well as picking up items for side quests as well but have it so it’s not extremely expansive. By having decisions make the ending of the story you can have multiple play throughs with either the same character or a new character. I think this would be a fantastic way to create an MMO instead of using the same old tired “WOW killers” as Mr. K mentioned. I believe you can even do a typical JRPG style game where you have turn based fighting as well, or you can stick to the WRPG and have Mass Effect style of fighing, either would probably work pretty well. This is my two cents and I think this would be a great way to handle things and bring games back to the Golden Age (granted it was done correctly of course; I’m looking at you Phantasy Star Online. Not a terrible game, but could have been so much better.).
Depends on what kind of mmo you’re talking about. America and Japan have REALLY dropped the ball when it comes to mmos. They’re hugely focused on story and PvE. What is the point of having a large community if you’re not going to make player interaction the focus? They’re charging outrageous amounts of money for what amounts to an often really shoddy coop experience with no reason for the community to even be there. How many different rpgs are they expecting people to pay for each month? No. I don’t think games like even WOW will exist for long.
So why have they existed up till now? Because the world is crying out for an awesome mmorpg experience. They’ll take whatever piece of complete garbage they’re thrown rather than have nothing. Games start coming out that think outside of the traditional model. Embrace what makes the mmo unique and focus on community interaction. Find innovative ways for players to interact with each other. They’re going to absolutely kill.
Some of the most fun I’ve ever had with mmos were on text based ones. Literally glorified forums boards. Almost no actual game to the game. But they embraced the fact it was a community. There were no enemies other than players. They played to the strength of the mmo over other genres. And people payed out the nose to be “good” in them. I’m talking hundreds of thousands. Text based. The very thing that makes mmos what they are most big names have completely ignored. MASSIVE MULTIPLAYER. Why do I find myself killing AI monsters with two other people to further a story I could care so little about with most of todays “big name” “mmos”? I finish the story and it’s “All well. Time to wait for the next expansion.”
So yeah. My prediction. WOW is replaced by sites like Steam, MS live, Facebook or whatever that allow you to connect with other players for coop/story driven rpgs. You’re able to find people that share your interests and follow them to whatever game you feel like playing at the time. Mmorpgs will be what they should be already. PvP heavy and open ended as hell. Probably mostly free to play. Not like they aren’t already like this in countries were mmos have been bigger longer.
Btw the Elderscrolls mmo I’m looking forward to. Sounding like it’s going to be really PvP centric. The game has been crying out to be multiplayer since the beginning. I loved Daggerfall. I loved building up my character. The combat gets really old really fast though. I killed a mage guild leader and had assasins coming after me constantly. Murdered so indescriminately that the guards ganged me whenever they could. Still no challenge whatsoever. First I could lose them easily. Later I could slaughter them with complete impunity. Computers are great. They don’t improvise worth a damn. Have nothing on fighting actual people.
Take pokemon for example. Yeah it’s fun building up a team of great pokemon. How much better was it once you could see how your team actually fared against everyone elses? Seeing how widely different peoples teams were? Something else they need. A true Pokemon mmo.
Before I get to the meat of my answer to this week’s question, I’d like to whole-heartedly stand against Mog’s first paragraph. I would say “disagree” but it’s really a matter of taste, not rightness or wrongness. I, for one, HATE, with the fury of one million suns, PVP in MMOs. Loathe. Detest. Abhor. Other synonyms for “hate”. I did when I played WoW, I still do in any game that has the ability. I would pay EXTRA money to be PvE, honestly. The PVP mechanic only breeds trolls and teabaggers. Just my 2 cents.
Now, as for the QotW; Are MMO’s part of the future or history of online gaming? I’d say both. I mean, that’s taking the question super-literal, but it’s true. They are undeniably part of the history; I mean, we’ve had MUDs for decades which evolved into MMO’s so they are well-established. But “history” in the sense that we are collectively “over them”? Nah, I don’t think that’s the case. As for the future, I think the MMO will always have an audience, just has it always has had one, even before they were popular. I mean, I used to play a MUD back in the 90′s on AOL (I’m old.) and sure, it wasn’t cool, but there were tons of players. I feel the same will happen if MMO’s fall back out of favor, which I don’t honestly see happening soon.
Didn’t care to answer last weeks question. So…
Yeah MMO’s are here to change. I think what qualifies for an MMO will also change, but mostly just games with heavy social interaction. So are other online games. And single-player games. I think MMOs will evolve into more casual games, like farmville is trying to do, but it’ll be a real MMO, like WoW, but for casual players. And almost nothing will change. The future is the present.
Unseasonably, I’m not sure if this will come as a surprise, but I don’t agree with him either.
Mists of Pandaria is entirely based on PvP. Burning Crusade was as well. As for MoP, Blizzard wants us participating in world PvP. All of the talents have been reworked almost exclusively to assist in PvP. The entire focus of the patch is to progress the war between the Alliance and Horde. We’re even going back to a system where you have to camp summoning stones and world bosses in order to PvE. Everything that was horrendously broken about PvE and in favor of PvP prior to Wrath is coming back.
I won’t try to deny my love for trolling (teabagging is a cliche troll and thus lame in most circumstances), but not at the core of PvP. Why despite the almost complete lack of innovation in the fps genre are they selling so well? Why have games like chess, Monopoly, poker, Sorry, football, basketball… lasted so long? Because fighting other people is AWESOME!
It’s not as if I don’t love coop games as well though. I’ll just never pay hundreds of dollars to play them. Why would I? What’s so different about a game like Everquest as opposed to say Champions of Norrath or Diablo? Even in games where I’ve seen them utilize large groups to accomplish a goal it was laaaame. I’m not even necessarily saying PvP is the only way to go. More that if they want people to continue to pay huge fees they’d better start having fun mechanics that actually utilize large groups. Have interesting ways players can interract with each other they couldn’t in a regular coop scenario. Give people more of a reason to be playing them over any other coop game. What’s one of the reasons Wii has sold so well? Coop. There is a very good reason WoW is going more PvP not to mention free to play. There are better coop experiences out there and they don’t charge a monthly fee.
But really, I feel for you guys. Never knowing the joy of charging down a field and knocking the ever loving crap out of someone. Or hearing some huge whale (pay to win type) cry because you’ve managed through skill, wisdom and pure force of will to utterly dominate them.
“Conan! What is best in life?”
“Crush your enemies. See them driven before you. Hear the lamentation of the women.”
*rps an ethug*
*pwns n00bs*
Obviously not very many War Room regulars in the house here. Why are heavy pvp mmorpgs the most fun games I’ve ever played? Because I’m a hardcore ethug who likes to make n00bs cry, yo? Not even close. You will NEVAH find the kindof adrenaline rush in ANY game that you can get in a pvp heavy mmorpg. Warring officially for respect points and unofficially for the lulz, crashing clans and cities because you can, playing WR games. What’s really more fun than beating up your friends and getting beat on in return? I dunno if anyone has played the same kinds of pvp games me and Mog have? With the same kind of fun, open and mature gaming community. I always MADE friends whenever I crashed a clan or city. Met people I later had in my own clan warring unofficially. Warring officially? Freaking blast. Made the number 1 on the game just soooob in the threads because she couldn’t match our clan tactically and her clan lost. Never spent a cent on the game. She spent thousands. EPIC. You will never know the fun of managing a lucky crit hit on someone who has dumped upwards of 10k on a game. It’s not something you can experience outside of pvp. The thrill of competition in arenas, wars, capture the flag. You against all comers, or you and your clan against your enemies. It can be an amazing thrill ride.
Mind you? There are always going to be aholes. Making fun of THEM is what War Rooms are FOR. It’s fun trying to avoid them and get what you need to done. Dailies, lvling, quests etc. Adds challenge to the game. Spice to life. Whatever.
And the day I can’t take a troll is the day I hand over my internets priviliges.
And do I think mmos are here to stay? Hells yus.
I belive the MMO style of games (as popular as they are) may not be the future of online gaming.Not to say that it will die out all together, but become a smaller presence in online gaming committee.The reason for this I belive is WOW.With every game out there trying to copy what Blizzard did with the MMO genre or to be the game that killed WOW. Some people are put off by Wow cause of the rep it has with taking over peoples lifes.So with that you loose people, then theres the WOW killers. Back in the early PS2 days there was a game called Dark Cloud which clamed to be a Zelda killer.Many people I knew never picked up the game for the simple fact that it was “attacking” Zelda, and even tho Dark Cloud was a fun game I can’t help but think that if they would have markted a little bit different it may have done better.So if these companys don’t come up with a way to bring something new to the MMO genre they may just sink.
Are MMO’s part of the history or the future of online gaming? The answer to this question is simple.
MMO’s are and will be part of BOTH gaming history and gaming’s future. I could spend days giving reaasons why, but I will try to sum it up to a short answer:
MMO’s have existed for a long, long time. “MUD” is one many consider one of the first large MMO games. It is from the 1980′s, has a multitude of versions, clones, etc. What’s really interesting is people still play MUD to this very day. – That is a big argument on the genre’s behalf: MMO’s are usually played long after the lifespan of the consoles, PC Operating systems, or hardware that ran them at their release. This is admirable considering all the newer, “better”, more flashy and fancy games hit the shelves in an attempt to replace them. Think about it. .. MUD, WoW, Phantasy Star, Second Life are just a few examples of MMO’s that ran years, even decades after release: some of which still run on fan (user) hosted servers long after the official servers die to make room for newer titles. They produce “cult” folowings, and become common to reference in media such as films and television shows thus even making some houshold names. So there is the first part of my answer, there is no doublt they are part of gaming history.
Now, for the future of gaming. This too, should be obvious. My first example: think of some of the top 5 most popular franchises in the last year or so. I’d bet more than half of you woud all have Mass Effect and/or The Elder Scrolls (Skyrim) on your top 5. Why is this significant? Because we all know that the Pubishers/Developers know how popular they are; and will most likely follow the usual pattern of the gaming industry today – and find the most efficient way to turn it into a “cash cow” while keeping the fans happy and busy with content. So what has been in the news latley? A confirmation of the current development of an Elder scrolls MMO that may even come out within a year (which breaks the pattern of long gaps between Elder scroll titles), and another confirmation that Mass Effects Devlopers are in the process of considering a Mass Effect MMO. As well as Nintendo, who is jumping into the MMO genre, by collaborating with the developers of Dragon Quest X, in an effort to create a comparable online service for their next console; the Wii U. There have even on-and-off rumors of a Halo MMO.
It’s also fair to take into consideration the fact that MMO’s are being bought left and right by larger companies than the ones that produced/developed them. Companies responible for Popular MMO’s are merging, and seem to be doing well enough to remove monthly fees from their games and offer free to play versions. Take the recent example with ‘Perfect World’ and ‘Cryptic Software’ joining forces. I play a few games they own and I can say to you with ease: they games have improved as an outcome of this.
So I ask you to consider: If MMO’s aren’t part of gaming’s future, Then why are so many of the market’s largest brands/franchises still trying to get into the action? Why are these MMO-specific developers merging and in fact growing? And if they are not part of history, why are decades-old “dead” games still running on fan servers in gamer’s basements to this very moment?
So Commodore, I say the answer to your question is BOTH. Thanks again
-Vulcan Assassin
I don’t see MMO’s in general going away. I do see the trend of having a few big name MMo’s battling it out for dominance, as these games are massive time sinks. But I think the standard formula used by World of Warcraft, Dark Age of Camelot, the Old Republic, et cetera is becoming less popular as the genre is changing it’s standard mechanics.
Many MMO’s rely on a hotbar, and you push the corresponding button on your keyboard, the game determines if you hit and how much damage you did. It’s an older style of gaming and understandable as MMO’s need to handle thousands of players simultaneously all running on a variety of computer set-ups, so they need to limit how much they tax a machine. We’re already seeing a shift were with the way Tera plays, but time will tell how sucessful that system will be. At the end of the day, MMO’s will lack behind mechanically from single-player games for the reasons I’ve stated above.
That doesn’t make them bad games. The social aspect is incredible. Being able to play with a dozen or so of your friends and go through all these adventures together, and discuss what’s happening is something single player games such as Mass Effect and Deus Ex don’t equal. Additionally, as others have stated, the Player vs Player is a big draw. I play competitive Team Fortress 2, and the feeling of working as a group to take down a coordinated group of human opponents is indescribable, I feel that it’s a big part of why the Arena system in WoW became so popular.
Vulcan Assassin asked by decades old MMo’s are still being run. For example, the increasingly aging WoW is still the king of the MMO market, despite it’s recent loss of subscribers. Ultima Online is still going. The answer is people get invested. They sink countless hours into leveling and attaining gear for their character. Whether they care about the story and the journey their hero has taken, or they just want to be the best tank, or best healer on their server the MMO has given them something to care about.
However the formula for MMO’s needs to change. WoW and TOR are both hemorraging subscribers, and they both use the old hotkey based system. Yes, TOR was initially praised for it’s immersive storytelling that forced you to become invested in your character, but it’s the same tired gameplay that we’ve seen from WoW, and the Everquests, and Dark Age of Camelot, and Warhammer Online, and Conan. Another problem is the content at the end-game stage. Simply put, the lack of it. Once you’ve reached the level cap there’s nothing to do but the same cycle of dailys and running the same dungeons over and over.
I don’t see MMO’s going away. It’s been proven that they are popular and a single one can last for decades. I don’t see them completely overtaking the market, or staying the way they are now. We will have MMO’s in the future, but not as we know them now.
Kinda relevant news i guess:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2404889,00.asp
MMO will most likely live on but not like we know them today, because I know for a fact most
MMO haven’t been innovating that much and people are getting tired of things like that
in MMOs
http://art.penny-arcade.com/photos/416469141_Vt5aq-XL-2.jpg
As of right now WoW is the most played MMO in the world followed by star wars. But when
it comes to MMO I prefer looking at the reference country in online gaming: Korea. I don’t
remember if it was 2011 or 2010 but WoW wasn’t the most populare MMO there, to some
people’s surprise… Maple story was and before that I’m pretty sure Lineage 2 was(which
WoW kind of stole from alot IMO, was playing that when WoW came out and I was…
disapointed by blizzard). Although I don’t really like Maple story, I gotta admit it is not your
conventionnal MMO and I was actually glad to see a game like that when I first discovered it
…if only it wasn’t made by THAT awful developer and the art style wasn’t so bad.
So will MMO be part of the future or part of history?
I think both are right, current style of MMOs will be part of history and newer style of MMO
will take its place. When? i don’t know but mmo haven’t evolved much sinced the begin of it
and that is the reason why I’ve sticked to the 2 same MMO in the past decade, one in 2d and
one in 3d with an art style that I can enjoy looking at because it doesn’t matter which one I play
since the gameplay is going to be the same for the most part but the community isn’t going to
be the same and that’s also important.
For the people that are in this for the community (alot of people are and they don’t even know
themself that it is the reason why they are in) I beleive it doesnt matter how bad a mmo is to
these people they are just looking for appreciation and the need to accomplish thing with others.
But all in all WoW will lose its popularity eventually because everything come to an end and
what will follow is unknown at the moment but I hope it’s going to be something different.
I feel that the MMO concept will never die but will instead be used in new ways. This has already happened in a very small way with Diablo III’s auction house.
The game gains a life of it’s own when other gamers’ experiences impact your own in any way. This random element which is impossible to program for a solo experience is something very valuable that developers should be using in more creative ways. I’m not talking about a new MMORPG that has all new zones, loot, lore, etc. I’m talking about events or conditions being set within a game which is otherwise focused on your experience alone.
The thought is tough to describe because it hasn’t happened yet… Think of a sandbox game like GTA or Prototype but split it up into 4 factions and 6 cities. You choose your faction and city, then you play the solo storyline for that choice. If players on other factions do enough in your city, an event is triggered. You never see them 1-on-1 which keeps the mood of the game pure (no mindless taunts from random people to spoil the game) but their actions affect your game.
Example: I, as a member of the blue group, climb a tower as part of a mission everyone blue gets. At that moment, 150 players in North America playing the red group defeat a NPC blue boss within the same 20 minutes… As a result of this random mass victory, red balls of fire begin to rain down in my game and I’m forced to take cover.
Does this make sense to anyone other than myself? Am I even explaining this correctly?
Anyway… wow, I would love to see a game do stuff like that. The solo MMO game.
Meant to say “NPC” in my little game example. Kinda key to the idea. Corrected! (sigh)
I don’t have anything to say about this topic since I avoid MMOs, and why do I avoid them is I don’t play multiplayer online games. (Minecraft is the only exception, but that is because of builds that people make.) I was also looking into playing Guild Wars to play with family that lives out of town now but never got the game since I am not much of a PC gamer.
Also I want to say that what Commodore said about this community and the conversation/discussion that we have here are why I like this site.
Been away for a couple of weeks, but glad to be back!
MMOs will definitely be part of the future of gaming, it’s just a matter of what form they will take.
Whenever a new MMO comes out these days, its lack of sales/user subscriptions are always laid down to “MMOs becoming stale” or “lack or creativity”. I disagree. The reasons a new MMOs rarely perform well is due to the fact there is no audience left for them. The people who are want to play MMOs are already doing so. Why would someone who’s already established themselves in a community want to poor hundreds more hours to reach an end-game, equilibrium point, in another game? Exclusive of the grind, there is the risk that the end-game turns out to be a disappointment (hello, SWTOR).
For a new MMO to be successful, it would have to reiterate a formula that made MMOs (namely WoW) so big to begin with. Free-to-play is generally tossed around to create appeal, but at the end of the day, most of these free-to-play titles are exactly the opposite – you need to pour money in be able to compete online with others.
No one will argue that MMOs are very time consuming. Pretty much all out there consists of a 1-50 level grind until you can truly get into the game. What if there was a MMO that had no grind? What if you could jump into a world without having to give up half your life to be on par with every other player? Many would speculate an MMO with this direction would be very watered down and simple – but why does it have to be? If developers could create enough, non-repetitive, non-grind content, I feel that it would appeal to a whole new audience of gamers.
It’s been mentioned a few times in previous posts about tie ins with social media. I definitely feel this will become part of the MMO experience in the future. For example, how convene would it be if you could access an auction house via an app on your phone? Or have integrated clans with facebook to organise events?
MMOs will definitely be part of gaming’s future. It’s just a matter of time before every MMO stops trying to be WoW and recreates the formula to be more access able and more involved than the traditional sense.