The only thing that will beat WoW is time. Eventually it will get old and fall out of popularity. This may be many years in the future however so don't expect it to happen any time soon.
Bren
I agree completely, the onlything that could "beat WoW" is time.
- - "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?" - -
WoW does not give players - a sense of ownership - community building features - meaningful PvP - player created quests - customization - multiple paths of advancement - freedom to pick up or drop classes or skills - and the list goes on.
The future of MMORPGs will be about community roles and not so much being a tank/DSP/healer:
I would like to see a game where each player joins other players and they build a town and the number of players in the town advances the town forward. At each level the town gets new NPC trades people and buildings.
PvP involves defending your town from other conquering player towns. If you lose to them your town is under their control - they get perks from your town and their flags, banners and NPC guards take the place of your flags and banners and NPC guards.
PvE involves raiding and collecting items for your towns crafters to learn, gathering items used in crafting and gathering items (gems, skill tapes, MacGuffins) that help you with fighting. The usual MMORPG stuff...
To get your town back by PvE your townspeople need to collect points by attacking the enemy NPC guards in your town, once you get enough points collected you open up a dungeon in your town that has your group fight a boss - if you defeat the boss your town is liberated. The PvP way is to conquer your enemies town - your town is free. However, you still get activity points (a lot more point than PvE) by raiding your enemies town and killing enemy players there. You can also have outside players assist your town by granting towns the ability to give out quests. So a player or group of players can take a quest to free your town from another town, or to get a certain item your town wants...
You can see how meaningful PvE and PvP would be not only for each person but for the group of players in the town. It allows individual players the ability to become town heroes and the struggles in game are now common ones.
"The liberties and resulting economic prosperity that YOU take for granted were granted by those "dead guys"
WoW does not give players - a sense of ownership - community building features - meaningful PvP - player created quests - customization - multiple paths of advancement - freedom to pick up or drop classes or skills - and the list goes on. The future of MMORPGs will be about community roles and not so much being a tank/DSP/healer: I would like to see a game where each player joins other players and they build a town and the number of players in the town advances the town forward. At each level the town gets new NPC trades people and buildings. PvP involves defending your town from other conquering player towns. If you lose to them your town is under their control - they get perks from your town and their flags, banners and NPC guards take the place of your flags and banners and NPC guards. PvE involves raiding and collecting items for your towns crafters to learn, gathering items used in crafting and gathering items (gems, skill tapes, MacGuffins) that help you with fighting. The usual MMORPG stuff... To get your town back by PvE your townspeople need to collect points by attacking the enemy NPC guards in your town, once you get enough points collected you open up a dungeon in your town that has your group fight a boss - if you defeat the boss your town is liberated. The PvP way is to conquer your enemies town - your town is free. However, you still get activity points (a lot more point than PvE) by raiding your enemies town and killing enemy players there. You can also have outside players assist your town by granting towns the ability to give out quests. So a player or group of players can take a quest to free your town from another town, or to get a certain item your town wants... You can see how meaningful PvE and PvP would be not only for each person but for the group of players in the town. It allows individual players the ability to become town heroes and the struggles in game are now common ones.
Now that's what I am talking about... the idea of customizing shit and building communities will be the future of MMO's. Hell, people love customizing stuff, even if they suck ass at it... Myspace is a perfect example of that. Customizing the character's look has been around for god knows how long now... so they need to take it a step further and customize how the actual gear looks by revamping the crafting systems.
Now that's what I am talking about... the idea of customizing shit and building communities will be the future of MMO's. Hell, people love customizing stuff, even if they suck ass at it... Myspace is a perfect example of that. Customizing the character's look has been around for god knows how long now... so they need to take it a step further and customize how the actual gear looks by revamping the crafting systems.
There have been plenty of sandbox games. Most have failed. Why? Because the sandbox part was great, but they screwed up on the other ends. Sandbox by itself is not enough, no matter how much people think it is. Saga of Ryzom has died twice. I'm still waiting to see if its second revival sticks. UO is still around, but it actually never got that many subs to begin with, and it has since lost most of those. SWG was bleeding 10k subs per month even before NGE, and NGE put the final bullet in its brain. Shadowbane is still around, but it still has a small playerbase, even after going F2P. There are a few others which are not even worth mentioning. The only sandbox game which is really doing well is EVE.
EVE managed to actually fix its problems and add a lot of new features. Great, why don't we see more EVE's? Well, any game that launched today in the state that EVE was in at launch would fail outright. The bar has been raised too high, in terms of polish.
It's kind of a sad paradox. Big studios are afraid to go out on a limb with a sandbox game, so I doubt we'll ever see a sandbox which is full-featured and polished at launch. Small studios are more adventurous, but their games often end up lacking in one aspect or the other, and once their games launch, a lot of their adulating fanboys who promised to stick with them through thick and thin suddenly cry foul and jump ship.
Comments
I agree completely, the onlything that could "beat WoW" is time.
- - "What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?" - -
It would be more suprising to see Blizzard next MMO to not surpass WOW.
WoW does not give players - a sense of ownership - community building features - meaningful PvP - player created quests - customization - multiple paths of advancement - freedom to pick up or drop classes or skills - and the list goes on.
The future of MMORPGs will be about community roles and not so much being a tank/DSP/healer:
I would like to see a game where each player joins other players and they build a town and the number of players in the town advances the town forward. At each level the town gets new NPC trades people and buildings.
PvP involves defending your town from other conquering player towns. If you lose to them your town is under their control - they get perks from your town and their flags, banners and NPC guards take the place of your flags and banners and NPC guards.
PvE involves raiding and collecting items for your towns crafters to learn, gathering items used in crafting and gathering items (gems, skill tapes, MacGuffins) that help you with fighting. The usual MMORPG stuff...
To get your town back by PvE your townspeople need to collect points by attacking the enemy NPC guards in your town, once you get enough points collected you open up a dungeon in your town that has your group fight a boss - if you defeat the boss your town is liberated. The PvP way is to conquer your enemies town - your town is free. However, you still get activity points (a lot more point than PvE) by raiding your enemies town and killing enemy players there. You can also have outside players assist your town by granting towns the ability to give out quests. So a player or group of players can take a quest to free your town from another town, or to get a certain item your town wants...
You can see how meaningful PvE and PvP would be not only for each person but for the group of players in the town. It allows individual players the ability to become town heroes and the struggles in game are now common ones.
"The liberties and resulting economic prosperity that YOU take for granted were granted by those "dead guys"
Now that's what I am talking about... the idea of customizing shit and building communities will be the future of MMO's. Hell, people love customizing stuff, even if they suck ass at it... Myspace is a perfect example of that. Customizing the character's look has been around for god knows how long now... so they need to take it a step further and customize how the actual gear looks by revamping the crafting systems.
There have been plenty of sandbox games. Most have failed. Why? Because the sandbox part was great, but they screwed up on the other ends. Sandbox by itself is not enough, no matter how much people think it is. Saga of Ryzom has died twice. I'm still waiting to see if its second revival sticks. UO is still around, but it actually never got that many subs to begin with, and it has since lost most of those. SWG was bleeding 10k subs per month even before NGE, and NGE put the final bullet in its brain. Shadowbane is still around, but it still has a small playerbase, even after going F2P. There are a few others which are not even worth mentioning. The only sandbox game which is really doing well is EVE.
EVE managed to actually fix its problems and add a lot of new features. Great, why don't we see more EVE's? Well, any game that launched today in the state that EVE was in at launch would fail outright. The bar has been raised too high, in terms of polish.
It's kind of a sad paradox. Big studios are afraid to go out on a limb with a sandbox game, so I doubt we'll ever see a sandbox which is full-featured and polished at launch. Small studios are more adventurous, but their games often end up lacking in one aspect or the other, and once their games launch, a lot of their adulating fanboys who promised to stick with them through thick and thin suddenly cry foul and jump ship.