When we all grow up...

Umbrood

It can be no surprise to anyone that MMO's these days are getting more streamlined and tailored to get the most subscribers out of every target group possible.

Up until now, or rather, up until wow, the estimated market, or available customers if you will, have been allthough steadily rising, had been on a steady curve.

WoW changed this obviously by pretty much doubling the market base in one quick stroke.

Niche games are few and far between, and my question is, will they ever be anything else?

Say 5 years from now, when the estimated market is trice what it is today or something similar, will there be financial room to make a AAA product that gears towards one playstyle?

Be it FFA PvP or epic storytelling PvM or a little of both with crafts that are awesome, or something in between?

It seems to me that if you wish to excel in any one point you need to focus on that one point.

Kinda like DDO have done today, and one migth say they failed, there is no market it seems for ONLY dungeon crawls.

EQ2 has it all perhaps, raids, solo, crafting, housing socializing tools and whatnot, but is it to early for all these features in one game, is it to much to comprehend and take to heart for the average gamer? 

In essence, 5 or 10 years from now, what do you estimate the MMO market to look like?

Obviously the majority of games will be like WoW, cause that is were the money is, but other artistic souls migth create something else, what?

Kinda like any Jackie Chan movie will drag a huge crowd, but show something like Kurosawas "The 7 Samurais" and you will not get the same audience, does this mean the Jackie Chan movie is better?

This has all come to me in a drunken stupor so please excuse the spelling?

Cryomatrix

MMO market is like any other market.

Once they see what is working they will copy it until someone comes up with something that grabs people's attention and takes them away from what was the status quo. As of now, it is the WoW model that seems to be working.

In the future it would be something innovative and timely, if I were to predict something I would predict MMORPG's having some sort of Virtual Reality input. Instead of pressing a button that slashes with your weapon, you can be connected to a crap load of sensors and what not that mimic your real life motion and put it on the screen. It would be one way to play a game and get exercise. Then again the problem with that would be expense and we know this world is a slave to the green. So perhaps 20 years from now when equipment like that becomes affordable.

Cryomatrix

Ridetsu

Personally - now this is just me - I really can't stand playing a game for more than two year; an MMO game that is. The fact of the matter, is that once you're done with everything, there is nothing left to do but kill people... and that gets borring as hell eventually - even when you do it with other people on teams. Eventually things just become lame.
In five to ten years, i see an older crowd - hooked and experienced on WoW and Everquest, being completely bored and tired of looking at the same cartoony missproportioned shapes of everything. What will they do? Stop playing MMO games entirely?
Ha.
They will look for something else... something they can play much like their old perfected games, which is fun to play (At first) for at least 6-8 hours a day. I see a rise in the market of other games...

and people comming to this forum and saying "I need a new MMO!"

ugh, those are beginning to bother me now -.-;

Boozbaz

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Originally posted by Umbrood

It can be no surprise to anyone that MMO's these days are getting more streamlined and tailored to get the most subscribers out of every target group possible.
Up until now, or rather, up until wow, the estimated market, or available customers if you will, have been allthough steadily rising, had been on a steady curve.
WoW changed this obviously by pretty much doubling the market base in one quick stroke.
Niche games are few and far between, and my question is, will they ever be anything else?
Say 5 years from now, when the estimated market is trice what it is today or something similar, will there be financial room to make a AAA product that gears towards one playstyle?
Be it FFA PvP or epic storytelling PvM or a little of both with crafts that are awesome, or something in between?
It seems to me that if you wish to excel in any one point you need to focus on that one point.
Kinda like DDO have done today, and one migth say they failed, there is no market it seems for ONLY dungeon crawls.
EQ2 has it all perhaps, raids, solo, crafting, housing socializing tools and whatnot, but is it to early for all these features in one game, is it to much to comprehend and take to heart for the average gamer? 
In essence, 5 or 10 years from now, what do you estimate the MMO market to look like?
Obviously the majority of games will be like WoW, cause that is were the money is, but other artistic souls migth create something else, what?
Kinda like any Jackie Chan movie will drag a huge crowd, but show something like Kurosawas "The 7 Samurais" and you will not get the same audience, does this mean the Jackie Chan movie is better?
This has all come to me in a drunken stupor so please excuse the spelling?

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DUDE DUDE I totally agree with what your saying that you need to excel in a certain point and that's what makes a good game. Not everyone likes it, but it's a heluva lot better then a SPORK. I'd rather have a spoon when I want one, and a fork when I need a fork. Simple. But yeah I wrote a long arse post about something like this before and I'm like right on with ya bro. More cowbell!