Will MMORPG's forever be the same?

tinuelle

Well,

 

Its really the same with any MMORPG you play.

Its like with all your ex-girlfriends, namely same shit, different wrapping.

 

Its either themepark or sandbox, but still a MMORPG.

Community either consists of fanboys or casuals.

 

I wonder if they will ever manage to change the genre.............

 

Do we need a MMORPG that affects real life, so that when you get owned, your computer fries, your house burns down and your wife leaves you. Then we can quietly sit back in our chair, which is the only thing that remains, and think to ourself...... Woooaaaahhhh, that was quite a ride, AAA game!

 

Will MMO's forever be the same, same shit, different wrapping?

That is the question of the day

Fibbin

You could start with describing what you actually want from the genre. Saying you want change doesn't really say anything

 

If the intent wasn't to put thought into a post then my bad.

odinsrath

idk if they really need to change..or even new* ...they need to get back to the old basics..the new is just all about  **prettys and shineys**  fast lvling and end game raids in weeks..sitting in citys chatting about nonsence for hours

whilan

If you break any game down to it's core, you get that same stuff different wrapper thing

Every RPG is a story with leveling.

Every FPS is about killing things in first person

Every RTS is create units/controll them to defeat the enemy

Every pinball game is about getting as many points as possible with X amount of balls

Every puzzle game is solving puzzles (that one self explainitory)

Every MMO is about thousands to millions playing together.

The difference in MMOs is the last three letters.

Basically you take one of the categories from the above and let millions play and you got the MMO version of the above.

it's hard to tell what is "wrong" with the genre if theres no reference to what is wrong other then same stuff all the time, now if we have specifics then we could go from there..  Most MMORPGs are going to be about getting levels. telling a story and getting gear.  As thats the core root of all RPGs.  Thus also the core root of all MMORPGs.

Same thing if you do it with any of the others.

tinuelle

I could say what I want, but that isnt the interesting topic here, mostly the posts around here are about what people dont want

I just let some thoughts out, really, I'm not sure what I want, probably cause it hasnt been made yet, but I'm quite good at knowing what I dont want

Look at the post in a bigger picture, this isnt a game crack-crash whine post, its beyond that. Its a statement that most MMO's are basicly the same shit, but wrapped up differently with either sandbox or themepark paper, or whatever.

Tardcore

Ah yet another inarticulate post complaining about the state of MMOs without actually mentioning anything concrete and as usual without bothering to list any ideas on how or even what changes could be brought about.



To have a productive discussion one must first articulate a concise question. And a list of positive and negative examples of the subject of said question would be a boon as well

tinuelle

Originally posted by Tardcore

Ah yet another inarticulate post complaining about the state of MMOs without actually mentioning anything concrete and as usual without bothering to list any ideas on how or even what changes could be brought about.



To have a productive discussion one must first articulate a concise question. And a list of positive and negative examples of the subject of said question would be a boon as well

 

Nice comment to the post, a standard reply on this forum that I consider a same shit, different wrapping reply.......

But to be accurate, the concise question was "Will MMORPG's forever be the same?" , and since it was a question and not a thesis, I havent listed much either, I've just posted a few comments that hopefully could bring some new thoughts to the table. This isnt about the OP, but the after posts.

But thanks for the post

Got me to elaborate a little upon it didnt it?

Axehilt

Existing MMORPGs run the gamut between sandbox, themepark, casuals, and fanboys.  Every MMO on the market incorporates elements of all 4 of those concepts.

The only limits are those imposed by the term "MMORPG".  If you expand your question to be "will MMOs always be the same?" then the answer is very clearly "no".  But the term MMORPG itself imposes certain limitations that the genre will never get away from (even though different styles of MMORPGs within those limitations will continue to be made, as they have.)

grratch

I think what is somewhat interesting about the genre that makes it feel stagnant is the use of the same UI, same types of skills, and same combat.

As many have said, every game coming out appears to be a WoW clone. Well I think part of that is because they use a similar ui, similar combat (very fast paced action ability spam), and abilities are generally the same throughout games.

I played everquest for many years back in the day but didn't have time for raiding and it eventually got to a point where character progression was stagnant and I had seen a lot of the game I wanted to. Next I moved onto WoW (early classic) because the combat, ui, and pace of the game was a fairly drastic change from what I was used to. Tried a few other games or previewed some others and they felt very generic because they had the exact same controls as WoW had. Now, i'm back playign everquest on the time locked progression server and really enjoying it because once again, it breaks from the normal mold of combat. Combat is much slower, you can only have 8 spells on your bar at a time, many of your spells take 2+ seconds to cast, learning how to split pulls becomes important because you don't have cc, ect.

I beleive all a game really has to do is reinvent the combat pace, how abilities are handled (as it's been said before, less can be more if you do it right), and change up the standard ui a bit, to give people something different. A large part of this is due to the fact a lot of people want PvP and the devs are catering around that (hence the faster combat and spam abilities), personally I would love a pure pve game where pvp is a side thing on a couple servers (mainly because maintaining PvP balance hurts class creativity due to balance issues).

p.s. I do not consider TERA (which looks like an FPS) to be changing or reinventing the combat in a method that is appealing to most.

Explorium

As much as I love MMOs (the genre I play the most)...its mostly because of the interaction with thousands/tens of thousands of people.

 

And as much as I love MMOs...I see they are just nerfed versions of singleplayer games. Well MMORPGs to be exact...planetside (MMOFPS) was freakin awesome. Another exception being SWG, that was awesome too.

 

But cities in (most) MMOs are dead, and couldn't even be called cities...Assassin's Creed does cities right.

And X3 Terran Conflict does space AMAZINGLY well...way better than EVE. Planets feel like planets, moons around the planets...

 

Then there is the items that lay scattered around...you can't even interact with them in MMOs. Unlike Fallout 3/Vegas, Morrowind, Oblivion and soon Skyrim...I could interact with any object I saw.

 

Those could be considered minor...

 

but what Singleplayer games have, is fun...Elder Scrolls is fun from the beginning to the end. I NEVER felt a grind, sure I had to kill stuff and do quests to raise level/skills...but it was just pure fun. I could do the same thing in a MMORPG and be bored to death. I don't know what is different between the two, that Morrowind/Oblivion do that MMORPGs do not...but there is a difference somewhere.

Then there are themepark MMOs. They are the worse when it comes to this. You will be talking to an NPC to do a quest, and then you go back to turn it in...along with 50 other people. There is nothing immersive or rewarding about that. In Singleplayer games, I'm the first and only person who will do that. Guild Wars 2 seems to be going that route a bit, a group of people do dynamic events, and it changes for everyone and it can't be repeated 1,000,001 times.

 

Sandbox games don't have that problem nearly as much, as players create their own content and things they want to do. There is always firsts (well a lot of the time) for someone.

 

There are many things that Singleplayer RPGs do that are FAR better than what MMORPGs do in this current gen. Most MMORPGs are just nerfed versions of Singleplayer games.

 

But I still play MMOs, because they never end (well, themepark MMOs do) and its nice to play the game with thousands of others.

Adamantine

MMOs arent the same ... plenty of variance out there.

 

Originally posted by tinuelle

Its like with all your ex-girlfriends, namely same shit, different wrapping.

Sounds to me like its your own fault, not your girlfriends. Remember, the constant in all your relationships is always that you yourself have been in it.

Hopscotch73

MMOs have evolved over the years, away from the sandboxy time-gulpers of yore and towards a more themepark hop-in-and-out game. Mechanics have been "streamilned" (simplified) and MMOs cater (for good or for ill) to a broader audience than they did back in the day.

They will continue to evolve...question for each individual is whether or not they want to continue playing games that are evolving away from deep, skill-based worlds to something other.

As for the statement in the OP that it's all the same stuff in a different wrapper: /facepalm of the day to you sir.

Of course games share common elements, but to focus on those to the exclusion of all else is like saying all women are the same (oh wait...you did say that). Tell me that playing Darkfall feels the "same" as playing WoW, tell me that EvE is the "same" as Earthrise...and I'll politely put my hand over my mouth so you can't see me sniggering.

Your analysis is as shallow as a puddle in the Sahara sir, and far less interesting.

Daitengu

Well Tinuelle,

 

The short ambiguos answer is "no". Simply because nothing lasts forever.

 

If you wish a more specific answer, you will have to ask your question better.  An example is, what is the same? It may seem silly, but your same is probably different than my same, as I've played MMORPGs for over a decade, and probaly different ones to boot.

 

add: You could probably figure out what you like or atleast tolerate by making a list of notable features you've seen and subracting what you don't like from it. Then you can filter out the tolerate from tthe list. There! You now have a list of only what you like.  Yes, it's thinking, I know, but it's good for you. You might even get a brain wrinkle from it.

Evasia

Most will be indeed for mainstream/casuals but there will always be some developers who dont walk the familar paths that masses wants.

Dont worry this decade will see some major chances in mmo market dunno if you like it but the masses will:P

Simplify is magic word for 95% of gaming market and developers, so its not hard to predict what will happen in lets say next 5 years.

Huge group happy small group unhappy and prolly quit.

I still place some hopes on some small developers who dare be different then blizzard/bioware/soe future will tell.

Loktofeit

Originally posted by tinuelle

Well,

 

Its really the same with any MMORPG you play.

Its like with all your ex-girlfriends, namely same shit, different wrapping.

 

Just like with your girlfriend's, there was plenty of diversity out there but you kept going after the same type over and over and over.

Can't blame MMOs or the female gender - it's all you, bud.