I predict that MMOs in the next few years...

earthhawk

A sci-fi MMO will come out with amazing graphics, outstanding gameplay, and free per month? How can I make this bold statement? Easy; in game advertisement from the biggest names in pop-culture. Hear me now, believe me later. It's coming sooner than you think, and pay per month games will be a dinosaur. The technology will get cheaper, the development optimized, and the games themselves will have no choice but be free per month. The only catch is you will have to put with ads ingrained into your game. Think about it...

CleffyII

I think it was tried but wasn't successful.  MMOs really aren't a good advertising medium.  Also what Big Pop Idols would be popular to advertise in a Sci-Fi MMO, much of that community is anti-pop culture.  Right now the only free model that is plausible is Cash Shop, or pay for expansions.

earthhawk

Originally posted by CleffyII

I think it was tried but wasn't successful.  MMOs really aren't a good advertising medium.  Also what Big Pop Idols would be popular to advertise in a Sci-Fi MMO, much of that community is anti-pop culture.  Right now the only free model that is plausible is Cash Shop, or pay for expansions.

You are telling me that the 8 million people who play WoW would shun a sci-fi game that was free to play because it generated revenue through advertising instead of a monthly fee? And I only use Wow because it's has a captive audience of 8 million players/ accounts. What advertising executive would turn down that oppurtunity?

greenfire

Originally posted by earthhawk



If at first you dont succeed...

distroy all evidence that you ever tryed 

MadAce

Pay per month will be dead in max ten years.

Joshua69

hmm, would be nice, but. i dunno.

I personally wouldnt mind in game advertisement. you see like, Listerine add's on the walls and Wal-Mart rep NPC's. click on the NPC and it says like, "go to wal-mart.com for outstanding prices....ooooo." lol. i think thatd be funny shit.

I've never played guild wars, but ive played Archlord, and, for a free game. that had a nice amount of content IMO. i think it would take WoW to go free to play, or go down to like...$10 a month to really change anything

Tinybina

I predict MMO's in the next few years.... will continue to suck for the most part like they do today.

 

Also you people are nuts if you think P2P is going to come to a end, if anything its going to become more expensive... I see 20 bucks a month in 10 years..

Need I remind you that alot of these MMO's cost about as much as a movie to make...The purchase price is not going to cover that, and ingame advertisement probably won't either not to mention its going to ruin the feel of a game... I can see it now, im playing World of Diablo (in 2015) and when I enter that villiage to sell some off the gear I grinded and as soon my level 45 Barbarian w/2h axe hits the vendor Im greeted by a tampoon Ad... yeah that will work.

"Have you every had that not so fresh feeling Doomsday."......

Hobl

lmao!!

DeltaMaze

Around 10 years ago people played Counter-Strike and payed to play mmorpgs. Now people play Counter-Strike and pay to play mmorpgs. I believe thats there will still be p2p mmorpgs and some f2p(like guildwars turned into a mmo style) but, I think there will be a lot more mmorpgs on the new consoles(ps4/xbox720) in ten years.

EggFtegg

Well they have been getting cheaper over time. I think we may see more free MMOs, but I have a suspicion the pay to play ones will have the communities that are worth being a part of.

MadAce

There will be a lot of peer to peer servers running mmo's. And a few will have self-sufficient economies that rival real world economies, so taxes on trade between them will generate revenue for the developers. Also, computer power and and bandwith will have become so cheap that it will be affordable for many companies. So affordable that they'll use the super-ser to run the game and rent some of the computer power of their players to companies for simulations and such. Also advertisement will make up a great deal of their revenue.

LordSlater

Originally posted by earthhawk

Originally posted by CleffyII

I think it was tried but wasn't successful.  MMOs really aren't a good advertising medium.  Also what Big Pop Idols would be popular to advertise in a Sci-Fi MMO, much of that community is anti-pop culture.  Right now the only free model that is plausible is Cash Shop, or pay for expansions.

You are telling me that the 8 million people who play WoW would shun a sci-fi game that was free to play because it generated revenue through advertising instead of a monthly fee? And I only use Wow because it's has a captive audience of 8 million players/ accounts. What advertising executive would turn down that oppurtunity?You are forgetting that its a sci-fi game you are talking about And that 8 million are palying a fantasy game and are WoW addicts so are unlikely to switch over to a sci-fi game.

-Ellessar-

Originally posted by MadAce

Pay per month will be dead in max ten years.

I'm not so sure about that.  Over the past decade or so, we have become a culture that pays a monthly fee to get a better or more easily accessible version of something we have had all along.  IE: Cell phones, internet, satellite radio, cable tv, satellite TV, MMOs, etc. 

earthhawk

Originally posted by Tinybina


I predict MMO's in the next few years.... will continue to suck for the most part like they do today.
 
Also you people are nuts if you think P2P is going to come to a end, if anything its going to become more expensive... I see 20 bucks a month in 10 years..
Need I remind you that alot of these MMO's cost about as much as a movie to make...The purchase price is not going to cover that, and ingame advertisement probably won't either not to mention its going to ruin the feel of a game... I can see it now, im playing World of Diablo (in 2015) and when I enter that villiage to sell some off the gear I grinded and as soon my level 45 Barbarian w/2h axe hits the vendor Im greeted by a tampoon Ad... yeah that will work.
"Have you every had that not so fresh feeling Doomsday."......

LOL. But if you are playing a SCI-FI game, advertising wouldn't be out of place. Think Bladerunner MMO...

Token1337Guy

How about a Longest Journey MMO?  You'd have Fantasy and Sci-Fi all rolled up into a nice package.

MadAce

Originally posted by bongo123


I predict that mmos in the next few years will be completely dominated by World of Warcraft 2 and World of Starcraft, combined players 20,000,000+, all other games will simply vanish as they will be unable to sustain themselves due to the fact that pretty much everyone is playing Blizz's and other companies simply can not afford to develop titles to compete with the $80mil blizz spends in development of WOW2 & WOS, with free montly updates and yearly expansions the Blizzard lineup will continue to be the number 1 when it comes to playing online.
You just know those guys are working on WOW2 & WOS, both of which when released will spell the end of a competitive mmo industry (as if it isnt dying already).
The only ones to survive will be the asian grindfests, cause they all love there anime looking 5y.o. chicks, all western mmo's will simply dry up.

Dude... If they ARE forming a new kind of Hollywood, but for the mmo market then they will come crashing down even more than predicted. They'll have to adapt like anyone else. 20 million? In a few years there will be nearly half a billion potential mmo players.

Xiaoki

In the next 10 years you will see the MMO genre become more like all other video game genres.

MMOs will become more graphics centric instead of gameplay centric(which is happening now) which will raise the development time for the MMO which in turn will raise the cost to make the MMO which in turn will require MMOs to have huge third party distributers like EA or SOE. Because of the massive cost of making an average MMO less risks will be taken in thier design which will cause them to become even more uniform then they are now.

The cost of the monthly fee will soon be raised to $20. This is inevitable and will rise no matter what. It's just simple economics.

wjrasmussen

Originally posted by earthhawk

Originally posted by CleffyII

I think it was tried but wasn't successful.  MMOs really aren't a good advertising medium.  Also what Big Pop Idols would be popular to advertise in a Sci-Fi MMO, much of that community is anti-pop culture.  Right now the only free model that is plausible is Cash Shop, or pay for expansions.

You are telling me that the 8 million people who play WoW would shun a sci-fi game that was free to play because it generated revenue through advertising instead of a monthly fee? And I only use Wow because it's has a captive audience of 8 million players/ accounts. What advertising executive would turn down that oppurtunity?

There is advertising at movies and they are not free.  $15.00 a month is chump change.  I blow that much on dinner, I spend more than that for parking and cover charge for a club and a lot more if drinks are involved.

The game play  (not the graphics) would have to be far beyond anything else for me to get into it. And then the reason I would be into it would be great game play not because it is free.

Now, a POS mmorpg which isn't worth $15.00 a month might fall into a special case situation. It wasn't worth paying for in the first place or at least not worth $15.00 per month.

wjrasmussen

Originally posted by MadAce

There will be a lot of peer to peer servers running mmo's. And a few will have self-sufficient economies that rival real world economies, so taxes on trade between them will generate revenue for the developers. Also, computer power and and bandwith will have become so cheap that it will be affordable for many companies. So affordable that they'll use the super-ser to run the game and rent some of the computer power of their players to companies for simulations and such. Also advertisement will make up a great deal of their revenue.

I agree, we will see these things.  We need more bandwidth.  It will be interesting to watch: bots, cheats and whatever the economy becomes (assuming an economy).

Crysalis

I would gladly put up with a hand full of advertisements in the major cities or places of heavy populace just so I don't have to pay that dinky stupid monthly fee...

ESPECIALLY if its a sci-fi...it makes it just that much more easier to deal with...hell if it was some sort of relevant advertisement I'd put up with it in an old classic MMO. Pros out weigh the Cons for me

alyndale

Free-market society. Yep, commercials in-game will happen. I agree, but they will be extremely annoying.  I believe that monthly fees may go up just so they can entice you away from the commercials.  Not sure but my prediction will be in about a year or two you'll begin to see this.  When big-time MMO's go free..everyone shall be hammered by commercials! 

MadAce

Originally posted by wjrasmussen

Originally posted by MadAce

There will be a lot of peer to peer servers running mmo's. And a few will have self-sufficient economies that rival real world economies, so taxes on trade between them will generate revenue for the developers. Also, computer power and and bandwith will have become so cheap that it will be affordable for many companies. So affordable that they'll use the super-ser to run the game and rent some of the computer power of their players to companies for simulations and such. Also advertisement will make up a great deal of their revenue.

I agree, we will see these things.  We need more bandwidth.  It will be interesting to watch: bots, cheats and whatever the economy becomes (assuming an economy).

With a massive economy that is directly linked to the real world there will be real world means to stop bots and cheaters as the financial stakes will be very high. Also, in a real economy bots would just cause a massive devaluation, contrary to the interests of the botters.

gillvane1

It's not about whether players will put up with advertisement. It's about whether or not advertisers will PAY for it. I don't think they will, at least not enough to pay for and continue to run a WoW or Vanguard or whatever.



It's easy to track ads when you're being exposed to them on the internet. Click here, to buy this. Use this code to get a discount (and if you have the code you got it from XYZ game you were playing). So, advertisers will know how much bang they are getting for their buck, and IMO it won't be enough to pay for MMORPGs.



In otherwords, ads won't turn into sales enough for the companies to fork over the kind of money it takes to make a first class MMORPG.



Basically, tell Blizzard this: You've got a choice. You can charge 15 bucks a month from your players, or take what the advertisers will give you. What's it gonna be? The 15 bucks a month is the better deal.

tehremo

The future of MMOs will certainly see many attempts at an FPS/MMO crossover.  IMO that is the holy grail of game development.  If someone can create a crossover title that plays to both genres, it will be huge.  As far as in game ads, this has already begun.  Battlefield 2142 already has this in game.  I must admit, I was a little concerned, but it was done very well.  They are placed on billboards and sides of buildings, pretty much where you would expect them in real life.  They also are weathered and torn up so they fit the atmosphere.  Its only a matter of time until ads in games are standard.  If its done right it does not intrude, but enhances the effect.

Unknown

My guess is that it will trend towards both models.  For example, you could pay monthly for wow with no advertisments, or you could play for free with advertising enabled.  It would be pretty easy for the devs to put some sort of browser in the interface, and they could even store your credit card and billing information to facilitate sales.  It could add further profit to the MMO model.

In the end, though, some people simply will not put up with ads in the MMO they are trying to escape reality in.  As long as they pay their hard earned dough each month, I see no reason why any gaming company would want to diminish that experience.

Unknown

Originally posted by gillvane1

It's not about whether players will put up with advertisement. It's about whether or not advertisers will PAY for it. I don't think they will, at least not enough to pay for and continue to run a WoW or Vanguard or whatever.



It's easy to track ads when you're being exposed to them on the internet. Click here, to buy this. Use this code to get a discount (and if you have the code you got it from XYZ game you were playing). So, advertisers will know how much bang they are getting for their buck, and IMO it won't be enough to pay for MMORPGs.



In otherwords, ads won't turn into sales enough for the companies to fork over the kind of money it takes to make a first class MMORPG.



Basically, tell Blizzard this: You've got a choice. You can charge 15 bucks a month from your players, or take what the advertisers will give you. What's it gonna be? The 15 bucks a month is the better deal.

 

I think you vastly underestimate the power of advertising in the gaming market for those who would put up with it for a free game.  There are many people who make very good livings based off advertising in niche website markets.  Blizzard could EASILY support Wow on advertising.  Imagine how much money they could make on computer component related advertisements alone (e.g. newegg special on GeForce 10billionXTX!!).  Not to mention that advertisers would foam at the mouth to be able to market their products to EIGHT MILLION people in the same environment.  It's ridiculous.  I don't even know if advertisers have ever had that kind of opportunity to market to that many like minded people in one setting.  They'd give Blizzard their firstborns for that kind of opportunity.