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Future MMORPG heavyweights
Bane101
Member UncommonPosts: 108
There's a lot of MMORPGs coming out over the next couple of years but I'm not sure which ones are meant to be the heavyweights to compete with WoW and EQ2 and which are the niche games.
Lord of the Rings Online, D&D Online & Star Trek Online are obviously going to be high profile. Tabula Rasa & Vanguard seem to have big followings as does Age of Conan. Any more?
Raymondo
Comments
Dark and Light, Hero's Journey, and Pirates of the Burning Sea... oh and Warhammer Online
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The main titles that I would consider potential heavyweights have already been listed. But I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that Wiki (by Webzen) will sneak in under the rader and eventually be a surprise hit. Maybe not a WoW contender, but its proposed "casual" experience and user-friendly atmosphere could be the right MMORPG at the right time. And yes, I know it looks like it ripped-off Windwaker, lets move on.
A lot of people are experiencing MMO's for the first time, and many of them will soon realize the LARGE amount of time needed to keep pace in most MMO communities. If Wiki's gameplay is fun with well thought out quests, it could find itself leading the pack in a quickly growing and under-represented "casual-gamer" market.
btw, my fave list for upcoming games is:
Age of Conan
Hero's Journey
Wiki
Pirates of the Burning Sea
In that order.
-- I need a nerf --
Pirates of the Burning Sea looks like it's going to be amazing, and another game that I think will make it into the "heavyweight" class would have to be RF Online.
Really looking forward to those two titles, but time will tell if they make it big or not.
As proven many times over;
All the above listed games are pure hype, ideas, concepts and potential vaporware until the game goes live and you see all those "ground breaking" new concepts and promises in action.
), just as every one of those games has the potential to be the next Horizons, or worse, Mourning.
All those games have the potential to be the future MMORPG heavyweight (you forgot Hero's Journey
But in an 'if all goes well' kind of way, I see Vanguard and Hero's Journey overrunning the PvE-nottooseriousPvPer gaming crowd, and Age of Conan-Darkfall filling in some much needed 'hardcore' gaming.
.
But I'm probably wrong. They're all still vaporware at this point afterall
But yeah, Dark and Light still gets mentioned in these threads too hehe, that cracks me up.
"(The) Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude." - George W Bush.
Oh. My. God.
yay someone else mentioned a Korean mmo. Here is my list:
Ragnarok Online 2: Yokko Kanno is composing music, new class system, and more dynamics in the game.
Granado Espada: Made by the legendary mmo Designer Kim Hakkyu.
Huxley: Looks drool over
SUN: Extended Guild Wars
Age of Conan: Another drool over game
Pirates of the Burning Sea: Realistic combat damage
The Chronicles of Spellborn: Unique combat system
Vanguard: Multiple leveling systems
Hero's Journey: Looks so good
Dark and Light: Looks like crap
In 2003 and 2004, I would have been like most to say that this genre has "come of age," and was ready for the mainstream.
2005 changed my mind on all of that. It was a bad year for the genre overall, due to all the scandal and drama. I have to agree with the above poster and say that all of these titles, while they sound appealing on paper, will only be as good as how complete they are at launch.
The game that I predict will be the "next new thing" will be the game that is the most balanced, complete game at launch time, and the game that has the most restrained live development team. The game that plays best, will be the game that changes least.
I think most of the "hard core" MMOG junkies are sick and tired of incomplete games, buggy games, and games that are subject to rebalances and reworkings all the time, no matter how good those changes may be. I also think that MMOG neophytes and skeptical players are down right scared at MMOGs, because the live development staffs are not restrained in their prerogative to change the game as they see fit.
Which game that will be is anyone's guess at this point. What I think I can safely say though is that stability, and minimal developer intervention are at this point more important than the buzz words of innovation, evolution, and change.
__________________________
"Its sad when people use religion to feel superior, its even worse to see people using a video game to do it."
--Arcken
"...when it comes to pimping EVE I have little restraints."
--Hellmar, CEO of CCP.
"It's like they took a gun, put it to their nugget sack and pulled the trigger over and over again, each time telling us how great it was that they were shooting themselves in the balls."
--Exar_Kun on SWG's NGE
This a very simple one to answer>>>>MEDIA HYPE/MARKETING !
All the games are pretty much the same ,with main differences being space/fantasy/PvP.It has been very apparent to me ,the trend is to follow the media hype.WOW was a huge benefactor of this.EQ back in it's day was really thrown around the media and garnered itself a giant.The size of the backing company has a major role also.Giants like Sony/Blizzard can see there projects to the end with large cashflows.
None of these have or ever will guarantee a good game,but nonetheless,people will follow.It is obvious that a large financial backing has a better chance,and for the most part does mean a better product. I have witnessed countless posts by people on forums ranting about a game ,they have never even tried yet,just because of sheer hype or a few jpg's on a website.
Take a look at DnL for example.There are tons of players that have already formed guilds ,as early as a year ago,without ever confirming the game is any good.They are brainwashed by sheer hype.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
As of this point I really dont think anything in the next 2-3 years will beat out World of Warcraft for subscriber and sales-base. But games will beat out WoW for long term subscription.
My views on the games coming out.
Age of Conan : Funcom made a solid game with AO and will probably do it again. The tech demo they launched for this game seems rather " blargh" and below average. They need some work atleast on the creativity and design/tech output of their engine. My honest opinion they should just upgrade AO or make AO2 instead.
Vanguard: Going for the nostalgiac "old school" rpg/eq'ish feel. One of the many developers that thinks pumping graphics and downtime into a game will work. I know people think this game will appeal to casuals, we will wait and see. Only issue is, you cant appeal to casuals if you are willing to lose the epeeners ( hardcore gamers).
RF Online: ROFL.
Auto Assault: Doesnt have the graphical power or artistic interest. If you are going for a low graphical end you had better make sure the gameplay is the best ever. From beta feedback and people complaining, it doesnt seem to put out.
Spellborn: Absolutely some of the most beautiful graphical game design in a long time. I recently watched their alpha build release video, have a long way to go on the animation but the creativity department in this game is intense, one to watch out for.
DnL: Honestly not a major one here. It has a niche interest in the old school ganker/uo/shadowbane market. It will do fine but wont be a heavyweight.
Kaos War: Early stage game, some of the best conceptual info and concepts I have seen in an MMO. Look for these guys to be fairly heavyweight in the coming years.
LOTR: This will be large but it wont keep hold of the veteran MMO gamer people. I think this game will be aimed at newcomers and will be a more lore and newb-friendly MMO because of the LOTR fanbois introduced. I dont think it will do as good as SWG but much better than most games.
DDO: Pretty much the same as LOTR. Turbine has a habit since AC2 to stick away from gameplay mechanics and focus on other aspects of the game. Which in the long run can be good, but if you dont focus on the here and now, the game wont go anywhere. The primary reason why AC2 failed.
Star Trek: ugh, you wont even get me to go near this.
Tabula Rasa: I cry when I see this game. Ive seen the changes it has gone through and everytime I see a change, I know that my man Richard is confused about something. It has potential but its not a game I would drool over until near completion.
WAR: Big series, good developer and high potential. Will be one of the top 5 MMOs.
The Chronicle (Keep an eye on this one gang, seriously)
Hero's Journey
Vanguard
Warhammer Online
Age of Conan
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Im not going to post here and think i know everything that is going to happen or understand the future of the mmo market so instead ill just give you my opinions on some of the games that have taken my interest.
(my opinions in order of 'heavyweightism')
LOTRO
I just think that the liscence will pull this title through. Yes it wont be as deep as we all hoped it would be, it wont be Middle Earth Online but it will be Lord Of The Rings so it will instantly attract the gaming LOTRO fans, the new gamers who have seens the films or like the books and us existing long timers who are suckers for liscenced material :P This in my opinion will be the biggest title, perhaps not for the long term but definatly for the first 6 months of its launch.
Vanguard
Vanguard inmo has a dev team determined not to create a game for everyone, dispite their comments over and over. I understand they may want to aim for casuals and power gamers etc but its a massive task and when it comes to leveling curves and death penalties you cannot please both at all so it will never work. You can aim for both audiences with other areas of an mmo but not those two. Never the less, i think this game will be big, for the first few months you will get the casuals buying and playing who will then quit once they see the true target audience. It wont have the pulling power of LOTRO but it will get a large player base due to MS's money investment and the new ideas they bring to the table, even if we dont all agree with them.
Huxley
Slated for 360, this game will be a big hit. As its going to be splitting its user base over PC and 360 it will be hard to nail down the true popularity but it will be big. It looks amazing and according the the reports that have surfaced looks set to be a nitro injected action packed shoot em up that will be right down a massive number of player's alleys.
(the middleweights)
DDO
I think it will do well, will have a strong player base just as EQ2 has but wont be a thriller and dominant force in the market. I just think that the geeky dungeons and dragons perceptions will be a massive turn off to a lot of the new generation of gamers looking to experiment with these new breed of games. Plus non-groupers just plain and simple wont like this, atleast for the vast majority.
Dark & Light
Great ideas, very poor implementation mainly down to the size of the team and also the poor quality (due to english not being 1st language) and lack of communication. People will still buy it just because they heard things about it and the ideas are good but wont stay long. The bugs and small development presence will be a turn off for existing gamers and the lack of liscence will be a turn off for new comers to the market.
Pirates Of The Burning Sea
This game wont be a massive hit with the casual croud, they simply either wont hear about it or wont be attracted to it because it doesnt carry a liscence. The game could be great fun and i think this is where its suscriber numbers will kick in. It will have a solid playerbase about the size of DDO and D&L or dedicated gamers that will stick with the title for the long run and see it through. I expect this title to fluctuate in numbers for a few months after launch and then settle into a stable player base about month 5 for a long time to come.
(The featherweights)
Auto Assault
Good concepts, fun ideas but nothing new and ultimatly nothing to make you stick around after playing for a couple of hours. Fun for a mini game but for a full on mmo this game will be lacking both hardcore suscribers and the casual croud.
I know there are many other games coming out however i havnt read about a lot of the smaller games so i cant comment on them.
(in the longterm)
Star Treck Online
This game is on its own as i think its just too far out to include as an up and coming game. I just have a feeling that this game will be massive regardless of its quality (like SWG) but wont have the pitfalls of SWG by having a corp monster behind the game (SOE) willing to sell their souls and ruin the gaming experience of existing players because they cant make a WoW. There are some great ideas coming to the table with this game, and a great team focusing on exploiting the liscence to its fullest. One of the most possitive points is that they have been investing heavily in creating the technology for the game and tools to create content meaning we wont be short of new content after launch hopefully. This game has lots of promise which could attract all kinds of gamer like SWG did at launch and one thing is for sure; the Star Treck fans and liscence whores will be here in great numbers. A guarenteed heavyweight.
Star Wars Online
Rumours coming from everywhere these days all point in the same direction, scratching SWG off as a failure and getting on with making a good Star Wars MMO game. It will happen, no doubt of that but we havnt a clue when and who will be making the game. Rumours from lots of sources indicated LA getting a team together to do it, but i still havnt given up on a dream of Bioware commiting to the MMO market :P If this time we get a good development studio behind this linscence with fresh ideas then the game will be massive. In SWG, it wasnt that the Uncle Owen experience was a bad direction, it was that the systems and professions in the game sucked, were incomlpete, some useless (a la ranger) and ultimatly you couldnt have a good Uncle Owen experience. The numbers were there initially to live an Uncle Owen life in the star wars universe but the devs never completed their game and have now say that players dont want that experience. Well, the masses leaving swg (the swg refuges) clearly show that the uncle owen experience was why they picked up the game, the thousands who left before quit because the game just wasnt complete, full of bugs and no content. Like i said, if we get a good studio behind this title with good management (in my opinion SWG had the worst management ive seen in a business, never mind a games studio) the title will be successfull. It wont be perfect, expectations are too high but it will pull the numbers in if we get a solid Uncle Owen Experience.
Huxley isnt really an MMO. It's more of an advanced peer to peer based game. It should be alright but nowhere near MMO quality. Maybe im wrong, we will wait and see.
LOTR and star trek online with possibly DDO been the major players.
I honestly can't see people paying for DDO in millions numbers due to the very nature of the game though.
But the brand names should see this 3 make a big impact at least initally.
Whilst ill conceed that Huxley perhaps may not have the depth of some other MMOs out there and incoming it will most definatly be a persistant world with many current mmo features. Instead of going down to RPG route however they are aiming for the reletively barren MMOFPS area of the market.
But yeah its definatly an mmo with character progression, persistant worlds, epic stories and thousands of players playing together.
Very interesting views! It's a shame that Lord of the Rings missed the trilogy releases. That could have added a lot.
Other long terms hits could be Marvel Online for the 360. And probably the DC online game that SOE is working on. If the Sims 3 allows people to visit each other's worlds Animal Crossing style then that could be truly massive.
But it is interesting to wonder which will be the next big global hit after WoW.
Raymondo