[Column] General: My Take on the 'Big Three' MMOs of 2014

BillMurphy

Last week, we discussed why 2014 would be an awesome year for MMOs. The big three MMO releases of the year were mentioned, but took a backseat to some other interesting developments. Today, community manager Mike Bitton offers his take on the three AAA MMOs we're all watching closely.

There’s also that whole subscription thing. So far so good for FFXIV from what we can tell, but FFXIV, WS, and ESO aren’t competing for your $15 all at the same time yet, so we’ll see how it works out once they do.

Read more of Michael Bitton's My Take on the 'Big Three'.

st3v3b0

Wild Star will end up F2P inside a year.  ESO will end up B2P and EQ Next will not be released in 2014.  Those are my predictions on 2014.

orbitxo

Wildstar better take note from their Senior and put int 'LFR ' option like WoW did on their current dungeons,..or they are in for a big dissapointment. if they want to keep a player base.

Nadia

EQN Landmark will release in 2014 -- I dont expect to see EQN until 2015+

DamonVile

I think wild star has the best chance of making a go of a sub model. It's the only one that really seems to trying to make the game more than just a game. I don't know how they're going to handle the content issue that all themeparks face but they do seem to at least realize it's the long term issue of all sub games. ( and no I'm not a fan or planing to play it )

ESO imo wont last as a sub. f2p/b2p in a year. Then like most mmos it will have it's core fan group and carry on for years.

eqn wont launch in 2014 would be my guess but as a f2p the game will probably do very well for SoE.

Iselin

"I’ve seen a number of gamers assert their doubts over ESO due to feeling that the game is essentially Firor and Co. trying to create DAOC 2 with an Elder Scrolls skin. Yeah? Well…DO WANT!"

 

Exactly. Organized large scale PVP when done with good leadership, chains of command, good strategy and tactics... it doesn't get any better than that in MMOs.... Instanced PvE raids... schmaids... I'll take RvR over that any day of the week.

 

As to Wildstar ... I enjoy humor as much as the next guy, but too much of it in MMOs gets repetitive and just feels like a self-conscious parody eventually.

 

EQN... lots of interesting things with this one but considering their inability to meet predicted time goals to this point, 2014 is just wishful thinking.

Quicksand

Originally posted by st3v3b0
Wild Star will end up F2P inside a year.  ESO will end up B2P and EQ Next will not be released in 2014.  Those are my predictions on 2014.

This is what I think as well.

Kyllien

PC Gamer still has EQN tagged for 2014 release.  I personally don't think that it will be so hard for them to rapidly put out content for EQN once they release EQNL on us.  I personally believe (although I have no evidence) that they have actually finished a good portion of EQN at this point and all they really need to do is add the content.  Still a daunting task but a far cry from being still at the building the characters and terrain phase.

Raventree

Out of the three, Wildstar strikes me as WoW 2.0, which I have no interest in, EQNext is interesting, but we know very little about what it will actually be like to play, and I had no interest in ESO until....three realm RVR with endgame PVP!!!!  Holy crap, now I am getting excited!  I am so sick of every single modern MMO (except Eve) making PVP into running the same couple of warfronts over and over until you can't stand it anymore.  I want RVR, castle siege, and a reason to go out there and kill those enemy players, other than they have red name tags.  This is what DAoC did that no one has duplicated since!

Mange1

People are still ignorantly saying Wildstar is a WoW clone because of the graphic style alone, even if it was that's a successful game you're comparing it to but it isn't a WoW clone.  It doesn't feel identical to any one game, if anything you'll end up comparing different aspects of it to multiple games that are most likely all considered successful.

 

CazNeerg

None of them are likely to go B2P, because that implies the lack of even an option to subscribe.  In all likelihood, all three will be some form of "Freemium" in fairly short order, with even EQN having some type of subscription option, even though it hasn't been described as a sub game.

Superman0X

EQN is a F2P game.... and like most modern F2P games, will offer a sub option.

CazNeerg

Originally posted by Superman0X
EQN is a F2P game.... and like most modern F2P games, will offer a sub option.

Some people argue when a Freemium game is described as F2P, thinking a game only really counts as F2P if you can't sub at all, so I try to avoid the pointless digression by being more specific.

Superman0X

Originally posted by CazNeerg

Originally posted by Superman0X
EQN is a F2P game.... and like most modern F2P games, will offer a sub option.

Some people argue when a Freemium game is described as F2P, thinking a game only really counts as F2P if you can't sub at all, so I try to avoid the pointless digression by being more specific.

 

Well, the primary source of revenue for F2P games has been subscriptions, since 2000-2001. This is the time period that actually coined the term Free to Play... and it was all about subs. It wasnt until almost a decade later that microtransactions became common.

CazNeerg

I'm not sure it really matters how Wildstar handles raids, I think the column author here is focusing on an irrelevancy there.  Statistics have shown that the vast majority of people who play MMOs never raid at all, regardless of what size the raids are, and most of those who do try a raid at some point do not become habitual raiders.  Raiders, if you can get them addicted to your game, may be one of the most dedicated audiences, but they really don't appear to be a large enough audience for it to make sense to spend much time or energy targeting them specifically.

Jaedor

I have no problems subbing for a game I enjoy so that's not an issue for me.

 

I see on the ESO fansite that RvR alliances and loyalties are the driving factor at the outset. Before you can choose your race, it is recommended you choose your faction. If they can find the glue to bind this together then it has possibilities. I'm looking forward to the beta this weekend.

 

Wildstar's art style is a turnoff to me but a couple folks I know in the beta love it and can hardly wait for launch. I do hope they'll have some kind of LFR tool if they want to keep 40 man raids viable.

 

I'm not interested in yet another cartoony themepark so have no plan to play EQN. I am enjoying Trion's voxel game, Trove, in small bites so may pop into Landmark to check it out.

 

So since I'm not much of a pvper, it looks like there isn't anything new for me to anticipate in 2014. Guess that means no distractions from where I'm having a great time in Rift...

Gravarg

Out of the three, Wildstar most interests me.  I like my games kind of on the goofy side.  Like WoW, I hope to get some good laughs from some quests (like the poo quest you get with every expansion lol).  EQN and ESO seem to be a lot more serious.  Also I don't like realistic graphics in my MMOs.  It's great for shooters and RPGs, but just never really fit for me an MMOs.  I've been looking for a long time for something to pull me away from WoW longer than a few months, but nothing really does it.  I'll probably end up laying both Wildstar and WoW, which I did with Rift.

There isn't one thing I've seen from Wildstar that I don't like, except PvP.  I don't like battlegrounds, nor do I really like PvP that much.  DAoC is the only game that got me to PvP for any long period of time.  That's really the only reason (except for the IP) that I want to play ESO.

Pratt2112

I generally agree with most of what you said there, MikeB. I just can't get on board with all the anti-Subscription stuff. Make a game that keeps players interested and entertained month to month, and they will pay a subscription month to month; even the people who insist they never will. FFXIV 1.0 proved this when SE re-implemented subs and most everyone who insisted they'd cancel their account as soon as subs were reinstated, instead sub'd and kept playing. If they find it worth paying for, people will pay for it. It's really as simple as that.

 

However, one bit stands out above the rest to me...

 

"Still, I can’t help this feeling that too much of the emphasis has been put on what that cool technology can do and less on what makes EverQuest Next an awesome EverQuest game.  Hopefully we’ll hear more on that this year."

 

Nailed it. I couldn't agree with the blue part more if I tried. The tech looks awesome. The graphics look beautiful (I actually really like the look of the game and characters), and Landmark looks like an awful lot of fun.

 

But what really matters to me is how worthy a successor EQ:N will be in the Everquest series. I know they've re-imagined the lore, so that's intriguing. But what I want to know is if this Landmark tech is a one-trick pony that will ultimately be relied on to carry an otherwise lackluster game (they banked EQ2's success on "new tech" as well, and that didn't pan out so well for them), or if SOE will leverage all that whiz-bang tech to create a living, massive and engrossing online world that is worthy of the EQ legacy, and that will truly draw in players and remind us all of just what a true, epic online multiplayer adventure can really be.

 

We've had quite enough games over the last decade, and John Smedley has stated that they realized regurgitating what every other MMO dev (including themselves) had been doing for the last decade or so just wasn't good enough anymore. I'm really eager, but cautiously optimistic, for how they plan to break the mold.

 

There's a great Blog post I read at Wolfheadonline.com, where the author says, to paraphrase, "It's time to lead, not follow. The ball is in your court, Mr. Smedley". I'd love to see John and the folks at SOE do just that. To make a game that, once and for all, shows all those who believe that what we've gotten the past decade or so is the best it will ever get, "and we may as well just get used to it", just how wrong they are.

 

Though, of course, I just can't shake what I've seen from SOE and Smedley in the past... They'll say one thing, and then do the opposite. And that remains my #1 source of skepticism over whether or not EQ:N can really deliver. How much is hype, and how much is real.

 

 

 

 

 

Tekaelon

Here's hoping that at least one of these is sub worthy. Happy to pay if fun to play, just that simple.

Pratt2112

Originally posted by Tekaelon
Here's hoping that at least one of these is sub worthy. Happy to pay if fun to play, just that simple.

 

Bingo. That's all there is to it lol. There's so much unnecessary effort to try and make subs sound like this strange, complex thing. They're not. They're as straight-forward as you can get.

daltanious

I will judge when i will buy and try them from first hand. But ... TESO as it looks have that announced silly limit of 7 or so active keys. As I do not play button mashers I guess that could be reason to skip. Another reason to skip would be if there is no 3rd person view. Been watching few gameplays and all were in 1st view. A main reason if not anything else to keep me away from any game. Period. For Wildstar and EQN have not yet checke some videos of beta gameplay so would not know. But I'm surre they will be all high quality.

Ozmodan

EQN is NOT a sandbox by any definition of the word.  It has rigid class structures which immediately eliminate any chance of it being called a sandbox.  That is a big no no when it comes to sandbox games.

I think they will all do well.  Wow is getting really long in the tooth, I did not last a month with the last expansion.  Most of my friends have stopped playing too.

I still think the subscription funding will have little effect on the successes of the games.  It will the the gameplay that determines that.

CazNeerg

Originally posted by Ozmodan

EQN is NOT a sandbox by any definition of the word.  It has rigid class structures which immediately eliminate any chance of it being called a sandbox.  That is a big no no when it comes to sandbox games.

I think they will all do well.  Wow is getting really long in the tooth, I did not last a month with the last expansion.  Most of my friends have stopped playing too.

I still think the subscription funding will have little effect on the successes of the games.  It will the the gameplay that determines that.

Landmark is the sandbox.  If EQN delivers the experience they are promising, it won't fit the definitions of sandbox or themepark, it will need a new designation.

Also, I'm not sure it's accurate to make claims about a game not being a sandbox based on how the class structure works.  What are the elements essential to the sandbox analogy?  Malleable material (sand) and a toolset (bucket and shovel.) A game can only fairly be labeled as having sandbox elements if it gives players tools with which to create content themselves.  Some games that people try to call sandboxes appear to actually be little more than themeparks where nobody bothered to build any rides.

Actually using the analogy accurately, rather than simply labeling anything that isn't a fully developed themepark as a sandbox, it would be hard to point to any current significant MMO which is purely a sandbox, rather than merely containing some sandbox elements.  Landmark looks like it could very well be the first true AAA sandbox.

ThomasN7

Nice article but it is the same old song and dance. Big year for mmos and yet they all seem to fail. ESO will fail the hardest  because it is built around pvp, Wildstar is nothing more than a WoW clone and FFXIV will always be for the niche. Believe me I wish we had a great mmo for 2014 but I see nothing but more fail headed for mmo land this year.

Games that will attract mmo players will be DayZ, Destiny and people waiting for The Division in 2015. You also might want to include The Crew (racing mmo) for consoles as well.

CazNeerg

Originally posted by ThomasN7

Nice article but it is the same old song and dance. Big year for mmos and yet they all seem to fail. ESO will fail the hardest  because it is built around pvp, Wildstar is nothing more than a WoW clone and FFXIV will always be for the niche. Believe me I wish we had a great mmo for 2014 but I see nothing but more fail headed for mmo land this year.

Games that will attract mmo players will be DayZ, Destiny and people waiting for The Division in 2015. You also might want to include The Crew (racing mmo) for consoles as well.

Very few big MMOs recently have failed.  It's only a failure if they don't turn a profit, and if they don't turn a month to month profit for any substantial length of time, they take down the servers.

SinDicate99

hmm may I ask (without getting bashed) what is the big appeal with Wildstar?  looking at it I donno how to describe it...

 

 

the way people were going on about it I was I guess expecting something more