The future of MMOs

Kabulozo

Belongs to east Asia mobile market. Lineage 1M alone already makes more money than all NC PC MMOs combined. With Lineage 2M launch approaching, NC oppended pre-character creation via website in Korea. All 100 servers became full within 2 hours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVsp9Aof1N8

Rungar

i have to agree. The west is dead weight now. Expect less. Alot less. 

Amathe

If the future of mmos is cell phone games, well, as they say back home, it's time to pack up the gear, pi*s on the fire, the hunt's over.

ultimateduck

Once the VR market opens a bit, it will ramp up.

The whole point of an MMO is immersion. The whole point of VR is immersion. It's a perfect combination.

Reaver4525

The future trend in general is for mass produced garbage. That affect videogames too.
However I believe there is also a pushback against that (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-consumerism) especially in the West, where people willingly choose to purchase more "meaningful quality" products whether in food or media.

It's really a battle about value vs. easy to produce garbage. 
Ultimately I will always take the side of value and ignore the rest.
That just means I purchase less games, and wait for the good ones to come out (ie: Cyberpunk 2077). I play old games in the meantime. It's amazing the number of hours you can sink in old RPGs you never played but which destroy many modern games.

AAAMEOW

You are only talking about Asian market though.  95% of NCSoft revenue come from Asia.  

NCSoft game isn't popular in North america and Europe.

NorseGod

EMUs of older MMORPGs.

Otherwise, something, something cellphones.

blamo2000

Good.  I hope all the hot, trendy, hipster games pander to the Asian mobile market and all the players who only play the next hot super popular game and base how good it is off of how many people are playing it or watching videos of other people play it get forced into that world.

Just like with SP games, me and my kind were kicked out and downgraded to the indie market two decades ago.  I have zero issues having my mmorpg needs serviced by indie developers too.  Once that is the norm more will be made that cater to my specific tastes and check the boxes I need to be interested in a game.  What was the last interesting mmorpg made by a big developer?  There hasn't been one in over a decade.  The only interesting mmorpgs being made are already being made by indie devs now anyways.  

I had Classic and was happy with Classic, but Blizzard really fucked that up royally.  

Kabulozo

AAAMEOW said:

You are only talking about Asian market though.  95% of NCSoft revenue come from Asia.  

NCSoft game isn't popular in North america and Europe.

The future of west MMO belongs to indie games that never leave alpha.

iixviiiix

AAAMEOW said:

You are only talking about Asian market though.  95% of NCSoft revenue come from Asia.  

NCSoft game isn't popular in North america and Europe.

MMORPG genre isn't popular in North America and Europe .Some people here keep call it niche

cameltosis

I don't play mobile games personally (every single one I've tried has been shit).

So, I'm not actually aware of any mobile MMOs. I know some of them get labelled as MMOs, but when I've investigated none of them actually are.

That said, I think the future of MMOs is in being MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER

That is the one unique selling point of the entire genre, and it's also the most under-utilised feature. Hardly any MMOs even make use of the feature, the most we can hope for is large scale PvP, or maybe just having lots of people moving in the background. At first, sure, there were tech issues in the way. Then, there is the sales angle - graphics sell, but improving graphics usually means scaling back on the multiplayer angle.

But it feels like devs mostly just gave up on the whole idea of being massively multiplayer.

I think that once devs re-embrace the idea, we can see progress and growth. Camelot Unchained is the only studio attempting this at the moment, so I'll be curious to see the results. But, if their tech breakthroughs work out and enter mass market, you can bet we'll start seeing all sorts of new and interesting MMOs. For example, lets have a new Battlefield game that allows 500v500 maps. Would that large scale multiplayer setting start to give us a better sense of the chaos of war and improve our immersion? Or a fantasy game where I can defend a castle being attacked by 1000 players?

It may well be that we have to wait until graphic improvements stop being noticable to gamers, at which point devs can invest their energy into improving scale and gameplay. Or maybe it needs a breakthrough new tech to make it doable. I don't know, but I'm certain we'll get there eventually, and when we do it'll be great!

Mylan12

Once I get my 'Flux capacitor' back working I go see.

KnightFalz

Eh, this is just another float in the doom and gloom parade.

MMOExposed

There been little to no progression in Player Made Content in MMOs.

There been no Sandbox Faction based PvP Only MMOs.

There been no Levelless Themepark MMOs.

again there been little to no progress.

not even Dynamic Events been progressed passed Guild Wars 2 which came out 7 years ago...

KnightFalz

MMOExposed said:

There been little to no progression in Player Made Content in MMOs.

There been no Sandbox Faction based PvP Only MMOs.

There been no Levelless Themepark MMOs.

again there been little to no progress.

not even Dynamic Events been progressed passed Guild Wars 2 which came out 7 years ago...

There has been little progress in story-telling for thousands of years. Yet people still tell stories. Sure, the method of delivery has advanced with developments in technology, but otherwise they are much the same. It has largely been the same with MMORPGs and video games in general.

I don't see why this would suddenly change now. Why should one believe the future will be different than the past, that the evolution of games will somehow change from enhancing the method of delivery to something that also transcends simply that.

I expect any innovations will continue to be minor at best. Better graphics, sound, and performance at the top end will continue as they have. Perhaps even the level of VR presented in science-fiction will come some day. Otherwise it will continue to be much the same.

Wizardry

ultimateduck said:

Once the VR market opens a bit, it will ramp up.

The whole point of an MMO is immersion. The whole point of VR is immersion. It's a perfect combination.

I can agree with that but the way VR is implemented does nothing for immersion.VR doesn't make immersion the people making the game do it.They also need to understand what immersion is and to be frank,you do not need VR at all.

To simplify it,immersion is when you get the feeling as a character that your world/surroundings feel like it would in a real world.Since 99.9% of the games are sticking crap on the screen ,like th markers over npc heads and anything else clutteirng the screen ,makes the games look like computer code and not a world.

Where VR comes in in once you learn how to design a mmorpg properly,then yeah VR takes it over the top and gives us a really good game.Then again proper VR design is a whole new topic,we can't even get the simple part of the mmorpg to be designed properly.

Industries be it gaming or whatever,cater to sales..money.Right now Esport,raiding,bragging tools.Those 3 ideas are superficial gaming,not a good reason to invest time in a mmropg.

Rungar

5g will improve mmos lot in life while it kills you. 

ultimateduck

Wizardry said:

I can agree with that but the way VR is implemented does nothing for immersion.VR doesn't make immersion the people making the game do it.They also need to understand what immersion is and to be frank,you do not need VR at all.

To simplify it,immersion is when you get the feeling as a character that your world/surroundings feel like it would in a real world.Since 99.9% of the games are sticking crap on the screen ,like th markers over npc heads and anything else clutteirng the screen ,makes the games look like computer code and not a world.

Where VR comes in in once you learn how to design a mmorpg properly,then yeah VR takes it over the top and gives us a really good game.Then again proper VR design is a whole new topic,we can't even get the simple part of the mmorpg to be designed properly.

Industries be it gaming or whatever,cater to sales..money.Right now Esport,raiding,bragging tools.Those 3 ideas are superficial gaming,not a good reason to invest time in a mmropg.

I would agree for most of this. I will only say that the way you play VR is different than the way you play on a flat screen. VR can take a standard game, and due to how its played, and make it immersive. No Mans Sky, Fallout, Subnautuca, The Forest and Skyrim are good examples.

Granted, the only MMO-ish type game is Orbus which, graphically speaking, not impressive to say the least. But it does showcase the difference in how an MMO would have to be played in VR. Even Elite Dangerous shows how a boring ass game like Eve can be insanely immersive and fun in VR.

cameltosis

Robokapp said:

cameltosis said:

That said, I think the future of MMOs is in being MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER

so Fortnite with depth? yeah...same

Well, Fornite with MMO numbers certainly has the potential to invigorate the genre....assuming the increased numbers leads to increased fun. But that is entirely dependent on the implementation.

alkarionlog

cameltosis said:

Robokapp said:

cameltosis said:

That said, I think the future of MMOs is in being MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER

so Fortnite with depth? yeah...same

Well, Fornite with MMO numbers certainly has the potential to invigorate the genre....assuming the increased numbers leads to increased fun. But that is entirely dependent on the implementation.

like wow did with his inflated numbers?

lets get real here the moment a thing become popular, companys try to milk that niche with crap things hoping to make some, almost none would take the risk of spending to amke something good, and worse still players give money for any crap they can push, saying it only X, I have more then that, with we know they will never own a bussiness, if they do they will go bankrupt

Phaserlight

ultimateduck said:

Wizardry said:

I can agree with that but the way VR is implemented does nothing for immersion.VR doesn't make immersion the people making the game do it.They also need to understand what immersion is and to be frank,you do not need VR at all.

To simplify it,immersion is when you get the feeling as a character that your world/surroundings feel like it would in a real world.Since 99.9% of the games are sticking crap on the screen ,like th markers over npc heads and anything else clutteirng the screen ,makes the games look like computer code and not a world.

Where VR comes in in once you learn how to design a mmorpg properly,then yeah VR takes it over the top and gives us a really good game.Then again proper VR design is a whole new topic,we can't even get the simple part of the mmorpg to be designed properly.

Industries be it gaming or whatever,cater to sales..money.Right now Esport,raiding,bragging tools.Those 3 ideas are superficial gaming,not a good reason to invest time in a mmropg.

I would agree for most of this. I will only say that the way you play VR is different than the way you play on a flat screen. VR can take a standard game, and due to how its played, and make it immersive. No Mans Sky, Fallout, Subnautuca, The Forest and Skyrim are good examples.

Granted, the only MMO-ish type game is Orbus which, graphically speaking, not impressive to say the least. But it does showcase the difference in how an MMO would have to be played in VR. Even Elite Dangerous shows how a boring ass game like Eve can be insanely immersive and fun in VR.

Vendetta Online is very much an MMORPG (one universe for all - hundreds of players allowed in the same digital space) and runs natively in VR (Gear VR, Go, Rift). Orbus isn't the only "MMO-ish type game" in VR by a long shot, although their community would love to believe it I'm sure as I see it repeated so often.

Furthermore, for all the "mobile MMO" bashing in this thread, you need to try Vendetta.  It will subvert your expectations. It is a deep game, as evidenced by the fact it's been running for 17 years.

Vagabondo

I am finding it increasingly difficult to find a good mmorpg to play. Surely there are ff14 and ESO, yet, still...

I do not know what went wrong, where, but i think the possibility to get amazed from a mmo has been lost somewhere along the way...

ultimateduck

Phaserlight said:

Vendetta Online is very much an MMORPG (one universe for all - hundreds of players allowed in the same digital space) and runs natively in VR (Gear VR, Go, Rift). Orbus isn't the only "MMO-ish type game" in VR by a long shot, although their community would love to believe it I'm sure as I see it repeated so often.

Furthermore, for all the "mobile MMO" bashing in this thread, you need to try Vendetta.  It will subvert your expectations. It is a deep game, as evidenced by the fact it's been running for 17 years.

I will have to look into that. I've heard of it, but little more.

Reaver4525

Vagabondo said:

I am finding it increasingly difficult to find a good mmorpg to play. Surely there are ff14 and ESO, yet, still...

I do not know what went wrong, where, but i think the possibility to get amazed from a mmo has been lost somewhere along the way...

It's mainly the switch to theme park MMOs where freedom of choice is completely curtailed, that killed the MMO genre. A former WoW developer even said it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125533-Former-Dev-WoW-Has-Killed-the-MMO-Genre

They switched to making difficult and fascinating games, to very low intelligence low difficulty games that are all about grinding and even buying gear and/or expansions.

From a business model perspective it makes full sense. You get the big whales on board the train for the long run and make them pay.

And now mobile gaming is the climax of it all. Even more dumb, more addicting, and more costly.

Though its possible VR will take this even further.

Amaranthar

Reaver4525 said:

Vagabondo said:

I am finding it increasingly difficult to find a good mmorpg to play. Surely there are ff14 and ESO, yet, still...

I do not know what went wrong, where, but i think the possibility to get amazed from a mmo has been lost somewhere along the way...

It's mainly the switch to theme park MMOs where freedom of choice is completely curtailed, that killed the MMO genre. A former WoW developer even said it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125533-Former-Dev-WoW-Has-Killed-the-MMO-Genre

They switched to making difficult and fascinating games, to very low intelligence low difficulty games that are all about grinding and even buying gear and/or expansions.

From a business model perspective it makes full sense. You get the big whales on board the train for the long run and make them pay.

And now mobile gaming is the climax of it all. Even more dumb, more addicting, and more costly.

Though its possible VR will take this even further.

If they combine VR with mobile gaming, problem solved. 
Which gives a new meaning to the old saying, "Hey kid, go play in the street." 

MMOExposed

Reaver4525 said:

Vagabondo said:

I am finding it increasingly difficult to find a good mmorpg to play. Surely there are ff14 and ESO, yet, still...

I do not know what went wrong, where, but i think the possibility to get amazed from a mmo has been lost somewhere along the way...

It's mainly the switch to theme park MMOs where freedom of choice is completely curtailed, that killed the MMO genre. A former WoW developer even said it: http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/125533-Former-Dev-WoW-Has-Killed-the-MMO-Genre

They switched to making difficult and fascinating games, to very low intelligence low difficulty games that are all about grinding and even buying gear and/or expansions.

From a business model perspective it makes full sense. You get the big whales on board the train for the long run and make them pay.

And now mobile gaming is the climax of it all. Even more dumb, more addicting, and more costly.

Though its possible VR will take this even further.

people didnt have to play it though if they didnt want to. EQ2 was right there, and soon after Darkfall/Mortal was to be released. So was LOTRO and Warhammer. 

If people hated WoW, there was many others.