Sadly no, I'm not joking. It does indeed feel like a console game. And for the record, yes, it is instanced, with multiple instances being created depending on player numbers. The game is REALLY neat at the start, and will keep you entertained for a little while. But I found that after putting the first character through the first 20 levels to get out to the big bad world, putting any other character through the single player game to do so was just plain BORING! I had thought that this would be a good idea, but now realize that if you try to lead MMO players by the nose along a story path, some will get bored of doing it.
Every patch I go back to try and give the game another shot, but I believe that the game is not going to change that much between now and release.
I'm not saying it's a bad game, I am saying though that the game does not have the broad appeal that I'd hoped. I'll be keeping my money for something else.
And for the record, if you get enough people ganging up on someone else in PvP, I don't care what class you are, you're going down, FAST. Buy lots and lots and LOTS of potions, cause you're gonna need em!
There are a lot of good things going on over at CME with Stargate Worlds - the game is showing a lot of potential. I have my fingers crossed.
Yeah, I'm very interested in this project. They seem to be keeping their information guarded, which isn't a bad thing. Too much info and people start jumping to conclusions, it can shut down a game before it even gets the chance to go to beta.
I'm very interested in how it's going to work. Granted, I'm wary of MMO's based on licenses because it's just one more handicap placed on the game (having to follow existing story lines and canon). But it also has the advantage of an already existing fan base.
I hope the game shows some more goodies soon though, there's so much on the go, I'd hate to see it left behind.
Like it was said above, the next BIG MMOs are going to be AoC and WAR, regardless of what people seem to think about them. Games like Aion, TCoS, and Darkfall may end up being really good games, but will never sell like WoW or AoC/WAR simply because they won't appeal to a mass audience. There is a reason AoC and WAR are going to be like they are, and it's simply to make money. Sure they could add all the cool, promised features that you find in TCoS and Darkfall, but then they would become niche games and niche games don't make you a lot of money.
TurnX Said Like it was said above, the next BIG MMOs are going to be AoC and WAR, regardless of what people seem to think about them.
Have you been reading or following the AoC community at all? It's an uproar, people are pissed it's going to fall way short. Canceled pre-orders, the beta test situation, Funcom screwed up.
As for the next big MMO, there won't be one. Blizzard crushed the records and will forever hold them. Never again will we see as big as a subscription or as big as an impact on the MMO industry. It is forever set in stone. AoC will do ok but nothing big, WAR may pull a few million but thats it. It's over and nothing in the near-future will even qualify since they are niche MMOs.
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Have you been reading or following the AoC community at all? It's an uproar, people are pissed it's going to fall way short. Canceled pre-orders, the beta test situation, Funcom screwed up.
I actually frequent the AoC official forums all the time, and you and many others seem to enjoy blowing the whole situation out of proportion. I think the main reason for this is people seem to like to listen to the "doom sayers" and ignore the people who actually are willing to give a game a fair chance. But thats how it seems to work now a days, and really I could care less as I intend to play and enjoy the game when it comes out.
Originally posted by HashBrick
As for the next big MMO, there won't be one. Blizzard crushed the records and will forever hold them. Never again will we see as big as a subscription or as big as an impact on the MMO industry. It is forever set in stone. AoC will do ok but nothing big, WAR may pull a few million but thats it. It's over and nothing in the near-future will even qualify since they are niche MMOs.
Of course no game in the forseeable future is going to pull the same numbers as WoW, its really just not possible. However, despite what some may think, a game doesn't have to have 10mil subscribers to be concidered a "Big" MMO. Really any game that can pull in 750,000 to 1 mil I would concider quite big. Also, I don't see War pulling in "a few million." I think AoC and War will both pull in about the same, probably topping off close to 1 mil. Sure it appeals to the WoW crowd more than War, but being a strickly PVP game is going to hurt it.
If by next BIG MMO you mean successful with sales this is what i would say - Right now its AoC this is pretty much a fact if you look at what im going to write next ..... - Already went gold as far as units go(means they are selling alot of pre-orders) - Already sold out of their 90 dollar (yes 90 US dollars) Collector's Edition at most of their retailers - Have enough people interested in their product to basically charge the public 7 dollars (check my posts in other threads there is a link to the 6.95 single monthly sub deal) for a chance at 1 of 50000 beta keys
After Aoc dies down a bit WAR will be the next BIG MMO - then will cycle back to WoW's expansion and back through those 3 as they release new content.
AoC > WAR > WoW .....then recycle for about the next 2 years As for TCoS and Aion etc - these games are good but cant compete with the 3 players named in terms of a BIG MMO.
-'Going Gold' in music sales means 500K copies sold. Unfortunately, for Funcom all it means in the computer game industry is that they've sent a disc to the publisher to start burning copies to put into the retail box.
-The CE's are still available at all the Europe e-tailers.
-They didn't charge the public anything for the beta chances. That's Fileplanet, they're not getting any of that money.
The other games can't compete with Darkfall. They are too linear and boring. We are tired of them. THey might be fun for a little bit, but soon the rush of a new big budget mmo launch will be gone and players will quit those games. Darkfall is the way to go
Stargate Worlds will be the next HUGE MMO. I've played AoC, and gave my beta account to the AoC guild I was in because it's got waaay to many issues. The game plays more like a single player RPG than a traditional MMO. Some will like it, but many will NOT.
WAR has the potential to be even better than AoC but this game revolves around PVP first and foremost. Some ex WoWers will love the game and fans of PVP, but most traditional MMO fans will shy away from it.
Stargate Worlds is going to be HUGE. Just wait and see once Beta starts, it will be the biggest talked about game once summer starts.. Many old school MMO fans like myself will immediately fall in love with this game. Especially considering If your a fan of Stargate SG1/Atlantis.
Rallithon Oakthornn (Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
Like it was said above, the next BIG MMOs are going to be AoC and WAR, regardless of what people seem to think about them.
Have you been reading or following the AoC community at all? It's an uproar, people are pissed it's going to fall way short. Canceled pre-orders, the beta test situation, Funcom screwed up.
As for the next big MMO, there won't be one. Blizzard crushed the records and will forever hold them. Never again will we see as big as a subscription or as big as an impact on the MMO industry. It is forever set in stone. AoC will do ok but nothing big, WAR may pull a few million but thats it. It's over and nothing in the near-future will even qualify since they are niche MMOs.
Records are meant to be broken. When WoW first came out, people who played it knew it would do well, but no one, especially SOE forsaw Blizzard doing the business that they are doing right now. Blizzards key to their success was opening the game world wide, in particular Asia. The market there is literally three to four times that of North America and Europe put together. And the funny thing is, there are other MMO's in Asia that laugh at WoW's "Paltry" 10 million subs. Imagine that?
Nay, something will come along one day that will match or even beat it. Who know's what it will be, but WoW was the right game, in the right place at the right time. Another will come along to put WoW in it's place, just like WoW put EQ, UO, DAoC, SWG, etc, etc, etc, in their supposed "places". There's nothing wrong with those games, and some of them would be considered technically "superior", however WoW offers the most bang for the buck to the most people, hence it wins. That's why despite the Iron Chef having one of the best restaurants in the world, still doesn't have the customers that McDonalds has. His food is far superior, but prices, appeal and accessability also play a factor besides quality.
I say the next big mmo wont be a rpg. From now till the next big mmo all you will hear is comparisons to wow, but when the next big mmo isnt a rpg it will feel new and I assume alot less complaints since you cant compare it to anything out.
So my votes go to APD, Huxley, or The Agency. They are all unique games with lots of money great graphics and all of them will be on the xbox or ps3. Huxely should release this fall Apd 2009 and Im not sure about the agency.
I dont think any of them will have 10 million subscribers(unless they go the guild wars route and no monthly fee), but i believe they will lead to a revolution in mmos, like eq did with mmorpgs.
The market there is literally three to four times that of North America and Europe put together. And the funny thing is, there are other MMO's in Asia that laugh at WoW's "Paltry" 10 million subs. Imagine that?
You would have to imagine that, since it's not true. Which Asian games have 50 million paying subscribers? The population in Asia is bigger, but the market is not. If you take out the people selling gold to Western's and Aussies the market is really quite small. I played EQ on a server that had a prominent korean and japanese guild (as well as a Brazilian one). I didn't survey all the servers, but I am sure mine wasn't unique in that aspect.
Korea's #1 selling game of all time (last I heard) was a game called Starcraft, you may have heard of it...
It won't reach WoW numbers but it'll rake in quite a share and very possibly overtake it in a few years.
Here's why I think this will happen:
- Extremely well known gaming IP
- the vast numerical majority of the IP's fans are ex-TT players who don't have the time to continue pursuing the hobby but remember it fondly. These players will see WAR as a way of continuing the fun they had as teenagers (and later i suppose) but now can't because of RL responsibilities. This demographic is also the one which controls its cash so there won't be any problems with paying subscriptions.
- In addition the game strongly emphasizes that being a casual player won't in any way restrict your access to content. This is very appealing to the above demographic as well.
- WoW style UI and (possibly) controls. Imo these were one of the prime reasons for WoW success. This will both enable players new to the genre to easily join up (like what happened in WoW) and for old WoW players to seamlessly make the switch.
- the game's meta-structure favors expansions. It is extremely probable that new expansions won't raise the level cap so there is no old guard resentment. It could become very long-lived indeed.
- finally, this last delay will ensure that the game ships as a finished product. EA has sunk a lot of $$ into it and I really can't think of any other MMORPG since WoW that had such a soft financial pillow. If it weren't for that they would have been forced to release early which is, as we know, almost impossible to recover from.
Guild Wars 2 will be the next big mmo. Adding things like a persistent world, higher level cap, sidekick system like COH will only make the game more of a traditional mmo and more appealing to the masses. I can't wait to actually see what Guild Wars 2 is going to look like. It is going to be bigger and better than Warhammer in every way.
I would have picked Bioware mmo because Bioware is such a great company but we have no info on the game yet.
Obviously someone needs to define what they mean by the next "BIG MMO". I took it as what will crush WoW because that is the biggest and the one to beat. Nothing coming out now or planned will beat this, this is unarguable the evidence is there, everything coming out is a niche.
WAR is pertaining to the WoW crowd lots will move over to it but it will not stagger any numbers close to WoW's subscription.
Some people are just posting their favorite game, which every single one listed is a niche.
Stargate Worlds next big mmo? Get real, it's a niche. Sci-fi lovers and stargate watchers will love it but it's a small crowd I don't see it breaking SWG's total subs with at one time was 450k subscribers.
Guild Wars 2? Nope, once again a niche. Those that liked guild wars will return those that hated the concept might try it out, but they still haven't made up their mind on a subscription rate and that's what made guild wars. guild wars because there was no subscription lots played it just for that reason. If 2 gets a subscription numbers will drop and nothing will be reached.
Earthrise? Nope, but it will be a nice fresh of air. A lot of people don't dig sandbox games as much as people think it's odd, but sandbox lovers is a minority. Proof of this is what SWG became.
Lineage 3? This one might climb up the ladder specially in the Asian market because of the success of Lineage II, but it will fall short of WoW's numbers.
Darkfall? I laugh at this one, the small crowd that hopes this game will be made first of all but a success. Hate to break it to you but you are a minority that want a full out PVP open world. Many do not wish to be ganked or deal with PVP. It will not be big it will be a niche for all the hardcore UO players, a haven just for you. That is if it even gets released.
No matter what you throw and how you throw it, it just isn't happening yet, one day an idea so big will crush the numbers but nothing on the horizon.
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The market there is literally three to four times that of North America and Europe put together. And the funny thing is, there are other MMO's in Asia that laugh at WoW's "Paltry" 10 million subs. Imagine that? You would have to imagine that, since it's not true. Which Asian games have 50 million paying subscribers? The population in Asia is bigger, but the market is not. If you take out the people selling gold to Western's and Aussies the market is really quite small. I played EQ on a server that had a prominent korean and japanese guild (as well as a Brazilian one). I didn't survey all the servers, but I am sure mine wasn't unique in that aspect. Korea's #1 selling game of all time (last I heard) was a game called Starcraft, you may have heard of it...
Ahem! Check the stats on Maple Story, then come back and talk. Then check Lineage 2, not to mention countless others. There's over a billion people in China alone! A dev would have to be foolish not wanting to tap into that market. Heck! It was said that Pandaran's were left out of WoW because it is illegal to portray Panda's, in any form, being hurt or killed. When a country and simply say "No" and have Blizzard listen, well, lets just say that accounts for clout.
We North Americans need to relalize there are more people out there than our small little part of the market. Those that do tend to be more successful. But hey, don't take my word for it, ask the folks at Blizzard who makes millions MONTHLY on their subscriptions.
Korea's #1 game might be Starcraft, but we're discussing MMO's here, stay on topic! Starcraft might provide multiplayer action, but it is NOT an MMO.
Originally posted by Binny45 Originally posted by grimfall The market there is literally three to four times that of North America and Europe put together. And the funny thing is, there are other MMO's in Asia that laugh at WoW's "Paltry" 10 million subs. Imagine that? You would have to imagine that, since it's not true. Which Asian games have 50 million paying subscribers? The population in Asia is bigger, but the market is not. If you take out the people selling gold to Western's and Aussies the market is really quite small. I played EQ on a server that had a prominent korean and japanese guild (as well as a Brazilian one). I didn't survey all the servers, but I am sure mine wasn't unique in that aspect. Korea's #1 selling game of all time (last I heard) was a game called Starcraft, you may have heard of it...
Ahem! Check the stats on Maple Story, then come back and talk. Then check Lineage 2, not to mention countless others. There's over a billion people in China alone! A dev would have to be foolish not wanting to tap into that market. Heck! It was said that Pandaran's were left out of WoW because it is illegal to portray Panda's, in any form, being hurt or killed. When a country and simply say "No" and have Blizzard listen, well, lets just say that accounts for clout. We North Americans need to relalize there are more people out there than our small little part of the market. Those that do tend to be more successful. But hey, don't take my word for it, ask the folks at Blizzard who makes millions MONTHLY on their subscriptions. Korea's #1 game might be Starcraft, but we're discussing MMO's here, stay on topic! Starcraft might provide multiplayer action, but it is NOT an MMO.
There's more people but not an asian specific market bigger then WoW so we look at Lineage 2. Overall they had 19million+ customers, this is the amount that at one point signed up and paid for an account for at least a month. The subscription rate of L2 now is around the 2mil mark overall. Like I said L3 will make a splash just because of that market of L2 but even with more people they may pull 3-4 times more subscribers then America, but it's not a major impact, but an impact none the less.
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I am hoping for a sandbox MMO like many of you, but don't see it happening anytime soon. Bioware may have something pretty big in store for us, but that will be a long time till release obviously. For now you got AoC and WAR to look forward to. However, these games are similar to the quest driven WoW clones that we are all use to. There is always the hope that Darkfall will actually come to life, although it's my belief that this is just vaporware.
If I could have any MMO, I would wish for a new SW MMO that is done correctly and doesn't get all messed up such as SWG. SWG was great at one time, so hopefully it would use that as it's foundation.
one that will come from a relatively unknown company, with unknown people who do it, not for profit, but for a love of the game. It is my belief that being limited by the demands of investors limit creativity and often result in games that are released WAY too early, often leading to their unfortunate demise. It's my hope that soon, one will rise from the ranks that will establish itself as a true, 3rd generation MMO. Are there any takers out there?
Dream on.
The MMO's is all about the money and that will never change sadly.
So you're telling me that games such as Vanguard, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, etc, etc, would not have been better games hsould they have been allowed to be finished before being released?
Sure, money makes the world go around, but do NOT underestimate the underground developer. All you have to do is look at some of the mod work for such games as Half Life, Half Life 2, and Oblivion (just to name a couple) to really see what independant developers are capable of.
The smartest thing one of these companies could do would be to foster a number of these companies, providing mentorship and limited financial support in exchange for control over their product. Will it happen? Hehe, who knows? But history is full of examples of the small guy doing something outstanding and setting the standard in their field.
So yeah, I'll dream on, and chances are it'll be a dreamer with an idea and some skill with code that will make you eat your words.
MMO Mods....maybe a new course for players to take. A WOW Killer perhaps. The next big thing?
You (OP) are mentioning Mods of popular games made by fans who love their game. It was the ability to mod PC games that weened me off of consoles because modding allowed me to gain so much more enjoyment out of my games than just cheat codes and game saves that console games offer.
There are efforts underway to back engineer the code to SWG and EVE, and I believe this is the first step towards us seeing the first MMO mods. Albeit, the owners of the code may not appreciate the copyright infringement, but there are times game developers see these mods in a positive light as it is free, 3rd party game developement that brings in more customers to buy the original game.
The NGE caused a group of disenfranchised players to begin their efforts on the SWGEmulator. They went open source on their code and have spent the past couple of years gradually unlocking the secrets as the original code was written at SOE with not a whole lot of documentation or explanation for a 3rd party to view and understand the inner programming as it is a proprietary property and wasnt meant to be decoded.
I just recently stumbled onto the EVEmulator while I was researching the Homeworld 2 EVE mod for one of my favorite space RTS games. My hope for an eventual mod of a EVE online version of Homeworld 2 as I favor the old sci-fi style of space ship art of Chriss Foss, Syd Mead and John Berkey. Granted the graphics from the old Homeworld series needs updating to current system standards. CCP did approve of their ship models for this mod, btw, supporting my statement that it if successful, the mod might bring in a few more subscribers who want to know more about the game where these ship models come from.
For those of you who want to fly a Firefly transport from Serenity, or play BSG, there are a few Freelancer Mods out there found on Lancers Reactor. You wont have ambulatory avatars as in SWG, but you will have a precursor game to what EVE Online is and the multi player capability to chat while playing. This community also has SW ships mod called Freeworlds which is what I played before SWG. Just about any ship model out there you can think of has been imported into Freelancer in one mod or another sci-fi fans.
I would like to predict an open source MMO that allows players to upload their own content to their chosen server that meets the Administrator's requirements would spawn a movement for MMO's in the directions their subscribers demand. SWG up till the CU and NGE fostered some feedback in the forums to help the game developers to prioritize what needed to be fixed first. After the NGE caused a schism in it's subscriber base (and benefitted other MMO's in gaining the MMO refugees it caused) there was a percieved sense of futility in asking SOE for anything. Hence the emulator project.
I understand there are a few WOW mods out there. If only WOW could be open sourced, would the community mod it into Starcraft? Why not Diablo? Blizzard knows its fanbase. I wonder if they would release all these MMO's and did what SOE tried, a game card subscription that cost just a little more, but gave access to all their products.
I'm hoping that the next big MMO will be Mortal Online, it looks set to be something great if they deliver what they promise, it would also fit with what the OP said.
Comments
Sadly no, I'm not joking. It does indeed feel like a console game. And for the record, yes, it is instanced, with multiple instances being created depending on player numbers. The game is REALLY neat at the start, and will keep you entertained for a little while. But I found that after putting the first character through the first 20 levels to get out to the big bad world, putting any other character through the single player game to do so was just plain BORING! I had thought that this would be a good idea, but now realize that if you try to lead MMO players by the nose along a story path, some will get bored of doing it.
Every patch I go back to try and give the game another shot, but I believe that the game is not going to change that much between now and release.
I'm not saying it's a bad game, I am saying though that the game does not have the broad appeal that I'd hoped. I'll be keeping my money for something else.
And for the record, if you get enough people ganging up on someone else in PvP, I don't care what class you are, you're going down, FAST. Buy lots and lots and LOTS of potions, cause you're gonna need em!
MMO Vet since AOL Neverwinter Nights circa 1992. My MMO beat up your MMO. =S
There are a lot of good things going on over at CME with Stargate Worlds - the game is showing a lot of potential. I have my fingers crossed.
I'm very interested in how it's going to work. Granted, I'm wary of MMO's based on licenses because it's just one more handicap placed on the game (having to follow existing story lines and canon). But it also has the advantage of an already existing fan base.
I hope the game shows some more goodies soon though, there's so much on the go, I'd hate to see it left behind.
I'd say the next big MMO is going to be..... Wrath of the Lichking
Like it was said above, the next BIG MMOs are going to be AoC and WAR, regardless of what people seem to think about them. Games like Aion, TCoS, and Darkfall may end up being really good games, but will never sell like WoW or AoC/WAR simply because they won't appeal to a mass audience. There is a reason AoC and WAR are going to be like they are, and it's simply to make money. Sure they could add all the cool, promised features that you find in TCoS and Darkfall, but then they would become niche games and niche games don't make you a lot of money.
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Have you been reading or following the AoC community at all? It's an uproar, people are pissed it's going to fall way short. Canceled pre-orders, the beta test situation, Funcom screwed up.
As for the next big MMO, there won't be one. Blizzard crushed the records and will forever hold them. Never again will we see as big as a subscription or as big as an impact on the MMO industry. It is forever set in stone. AoC will do ok but nothing big, WAR may pull a few million but thats it. It's over and nothing in the near-future will even qualify since they are niche MMOs.
Of course no game in the forseeable future is going to pull the same numbers as WoW, its really just not possible. However, despite what some may think, a game doesn't have to have 10mil subscribers to be concidered a "Big" MMO. Really any game that can pull in 750,000 to 1 mil I would concider quite big. Also, I don't see War pulling in "a few million." I think AoC and War will both pull in about the same, probably topping off close to 1 mil. Sure it appeals to the WoW crowd more than War, but being a strickly PVP game is going to hurt it.
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-'Going Gold' in music sales means 500K copies sold. Unfortunately, for Funcom all it means in the computer game industry is that they've sent a disc to the publisher to start burning copies to put into the retail box.
-The CE's are still available at all the Europe e-tailers.
-They didn't charge the public anything for the beta chances. That's Fileplanet, they're not getting any of that money.
Darkfall will be the next MMORPG.
The other games can't compete with Darkfall. They are too linear and boring. We are tired of them. THey might be fun for a little bit, but soon the rush of a new big budget mmo launch will be gone and players will quit those games. Darkfall is the way to go
Stargate Worlds will be the next HUGE MMO. I've played AoC, and gave my beta account to the AoC guild I was in because it's got waaay to many issues. The game plays more like a single player RPG than a traditional MMO. Some will like it, but many will NOT.
WAR has the potential to be even better than AoC but this game revolves around PVP first and foremost. Some ex WoWers will love the game and fans of PVP, but most traditional MMO fans will shy away from it.
Stargate Worlds is going to be HUGE. Just wait and see once Beta starts, it will be the biggest talked about game once summer starts.. Many old school MMO fans like myself will immediately fall in love with this game. Especially considering If your a fan of Stargate SG1/Atlantis.
Rallithon Oakthornn
(Retired Heirophant of the 60th season)
When will Rockstar wake up and just release GTA Online? I know APB is coming, someday, maybe.
Have you been reading or following the AoC community at all? It's an uproar, people are pissed it's going to fall way short. Canceled pre-orders, the beta test situation, Funcom screwed up.
As for the next big MMO, there won't be one. Blizzard crushed the records and will forever hold them. Never again will we see as big as a subscription or as big as an impact on the MMO industry. It is forever set in stone. AoC will do ok but nothing big, WAR may pull a few million but thats it. It's over and nothing in the near-future will even qualify since they are niche MMOs.
Records are meant to be broken. When WoW first came out, people who played it knew it would do well, but no one, especially SOE forsaw Blizzard doing the business that they are doing right now. Blizzards key to their success was opening the game world wide, in particular Asia. The market there is literally three to four times that of North America and Europe put together. And the funny thing is, there are other MMO's in Asia that laugh at WoW's "Paltry" 10 million subs. Imagine that?Nay, something will come along one day that will match or even beat it. Who know's what it will be, but WoW was the right game, in the right place at the right time. Another will come along to put WoW in it's place, just like WoW put EQ, UO, DAoC, SWG, etc, etc, etc, in their supposed "places". There's nothing wrong with those games, and some of them would be considered technically "superior", however WoW offers the most bang for the buck to the most people, hence it wins. That's why despite the Iron Chef having one of the best restaurants in the world, still doesn't have the customers that McDonalds has. His food is far superior, but prices, appeal and accessability also play a factor besides quality.
I say the next big mmo wont be a rpg. From now till the next big mmo all you will hear is comparisons to wow, but when the next big mmo isnt a rpg it will feel new and I assume alot less complaints since you cant compare it to anything out.
So my votes go to APD, Huxley, or The Agency. They are all unique games with lots of money great graphics and all of them will be on the xbox or ps3. Huxely should release this fall Apd 2009 and Im not sure about the agency.
I dont think any of them will have 10 million subscribers(unless they go the guild wars route and no monthly fee), but i believe they will lead to a revolution in mmos, like eq did with mmorpgs.
Own, Mine, Defend, Attack, 24/7
The market there is literally three to four times that of North America and Europe put together. And the funny thing is, there are other MMO's in Asia that laugh at WoW's "Paltry" 10 million subs. Imagine that?
You would have to imagine that, since it's not true. Which Asian games have 50 million paying subscribers? The population in Asia is bigger, but the market is not. If you take out the people selling gold to Western's and Aussies the market is really quite small. I played EQ on a server that had a prominent korean and japanese guild (as well as a Brazilian one). I didn't survey all the servers, but I am sure mine wasn't unique in that aspect.
Korea's #1 selling game of all time (last I heard) was a game called Starcraft, you may have heard of it...
WAR, obviously.
It won't reach WoW numbers but it'll rake in quite a share and very possibly overtake it in a few years.
Here's why I think this will happen:
- Extremely well known gaming IP
- the vast numerical majority of the IP's fans are ex-TT players who don't have the time to continue pursuing the hobby but remember it fondly. These players will see WAR as a way of continuing the fun they had as teenagers (and later i suppose) but now can't because of RL responsibilities. This demographic is also the one which controls its cash so there won't be any problems with paying subscriptions.
- In addition the game strongly emphasizes that being a casual player won't in any way restrict your access to content. This is very appealing to the above demographic as well.
- WoW style UI and (possibly) controls. Imo these were one of the prime reasons for WoW success. This will both enable players new to the genre to easily join up (like what happened in WoW) and for old WoW players to seamlessly make the switch.
- the game's meta-structure favors expansions. It is extremely probable that new expansions won't raise the level cap so there is no old guard resentment. It could become very long-lived indeed.
- finally, this last delay will ensure that the game ships as a finished product. EA has sunk a lot of $$ into it and I really can't think of any other MMORPG since WoW that had such a soft financial pillow. If it weren't for that they would have been forced to release early which is, as we know, almost impossible to recover from.
Guild Wars 2 will be the next big mmo. Adding things like a persistent world, higher level cap, sidekick system like COH will only make the game more of a traditional mmo and more appealing to the masses. I can't wait to actually see what Guild Wars 2 is going to look like. It is going to be bigger and better than Warhammer in every way.
I would have picked Bioware mmo because Bioware is such a great company but we have no info on the game yet.
Obviously someone needs to define what they mean by the next "BIG MMO". I took it as what will crush WoW because that is the biggest and the one to beat. Nothing coming out now or planned will beat this, this is unarguable the evidence is there, everything coming out is a niche.
WAR is pertaining to the WoW crowd lots will move over to it but it will not stagger any numbers close to WoW's subscription.
Some people are just posting their favorite game, which every single one listed is a niche.
Stargate Worlds next big mmo? Get real, it's a niche. Sci-fi lovers and stargate watchers will love it but it's a small crowd I don't see it breaking SWG's total subs with at one time was 450k subscribers.
Guild Wars 2? Nope, once again a niche. Those that liked guild wars will return those that hated the concept might try it out, but they still haven't made up their mind on a subscription rate and that's what made guild wars. guild wars because there was no subscription lots played it just for that reason. If 2 gets a subscription numbers will drop and nothing will be reached.
Earthrise? Nope, but it will be a nice fresh of air. A lot of people don't dig sandbox games as much as people think it's odd, but sandbox lovers is a minority. Proof of this is what SWG became.
Lineage 3? This one might climb up the ladder specially in the Asian market because of the success of Lineage II, but it will fall short of WoW's numbers.
Darkfall? I laugh at this one, the small crowd that hopes this game will be made first of all but a success. Hate to break it to you but you are a minority that want a full out PVP open world. Many do not wish to be ganked or deal with PVP. It will not be big it will be a niche for all the hardcore UO players, a haven just for you. That is if it even gets released.
No matter what you throw and how you throw it, it just isn't happening yet, one day an idea so big will crush the numbers but nothing on the horizon.
We North Americans need to relalize there are more people out there than our small little part of the market. Those that do tend to be more successful. But hey, don't take my word for it, ask the folks at Blizzard who makes millions MONTHLY on their subscriptions.
Korea's #1 game might be Starcraft, but we're discussing MMO's here, stay on topic! Starcraft might provide multiplayer action, but it is NOT an MMO.
We North Americans need to relalize there are more people out there than our small little part of the market. Those that do tend to be more successful. But hey, don't take my word for it, ask the folks at Blizzard who makes millions MONTHLY on their subscriptions.
Korea's #1 game might be Starcraft, but we're discussing MMO's here, stay on topic! Starcraft might provide multiplayer action, but it is NOT an MMO.
There's more people but not an asian specific market bigger then WoW so we look at Lineage 2. Overall they had 19million+ customers, this is the amount that at one point signed up and paid for an account for at least a month. The subscription rate of L2 now is around the 2mil mark overall. Like I said L3 will make a splash just because of that market of L2 but even with more people they may pull 3-4 times more subscribers then America, but it's not a major impact, but an impact none the less.
I am hoping for a sandbox MMO like many of you, but don't see it happening anytime soon. Bioware may have something pretty big in store for us, but that will be a long time till release obviously. For now you got AoC and WAR to look forward to. However, these games are similar to the quest driven WoW clones that we are all use to. There is always the hope that Darkfall will actually come to life, although it's my belief that this is just vaporware.
If I could have any MMO, I would wish for a new SW MMO that is done correctly and doesn't get all messed up such as SWG. SWG was great at one time, so hopefully it would use that as it's foundation.
Dream on.
So you're telling me that games such as Vanguard, Tabula Rasa, Anarchy Online, etc, etc, would not have been better games hsould they have been allowed to be finished before being released?The MMO's is all about the money and that will never change sadly.
Sure, money makes the world go around, but do NOT underestimate the underground developer. All you have to do is look at some of the mod work for such games as Half Life, Half Life 2, and Oblivion (just to name a couple) to really see what independant developers are capable of.
The smartest thing one of these companies could do would be to foster a number of these companies, providing mentorship and limited financial support in exchange for control over their product. Will it happen? Hehe, who knows? But history is full of examples of the small guy doing something outstanding and setting the standard in their field.
So yeah, I'll dream on, and chances are it'll be a dreamer with an idea and some skill with code that will make you eat your words.
You (OP) are mentioning Mods of popular games made by fans who love their game. It was the ability to mod PC games that weened me off of consoles because modding allowed me to gain so much more enjoyment out of my games than just cheat codes and game saves that console games offer.
There are efforts underway to back engineer the code to SWG and EVE, and I believe this is the first step towards us seeing the first MMO mods. Albeit, the owners of the code may not appreciate the copyright infringement, but there are times game developers see these mods in a positive light as it is free, 3rd party game developement that brings in more customers to buy the original game.
The NGE caused a group of disenfranchised players to begin their efforts on the SWGEmulator. They went open source on their code and have spent the past couple of years gradually unlocking the secrets as the original code was written at SOE with not a whole lot of documentation or explanation for a 3rd party to view and understand the inner programming as it is a proprietary property and wasnt meant to be decoded.
I just recently stumbled onto the EVEmulator while I was researching the Homeworld 2 EVE mod for one of my favorite space RTS games. My hope for an eventual mod of a EVE online version of Homeworld 2 as I favor the old sci-fi style of space ship art of Chriss Foss, Syd Mead and John Berkey. Granted the graphics from the old Homeworld series needs updating to current system standards. CCP did approve of their ship models for this mod, btw, supporting my statement that it if successful, the mod might bring in a few more subscribers who want to know more about the game where these ship models come from.
For those of you who want to fly a Firefly transport from Serenity, or play BSG, there are a few Freelancer Mods out there found on Lancers Reactor. You wont have ambulatory avatars as in SWG, but you will have a precursor game to what EVE Online is and the multi player capability to chat while playing. This community also has SW ships mod called Freeworlds which is what I played before SWG. Just about any ship model out there you can think of has been imported into Freelancer in one mod or another sci-fi fans.
I would like to predict an open source MMO that allows players to upload their own content to their chosen server that meets the Administrator's requirements would spawn a movement for MMO's in the directions their subscribers demand. SWG up till the CU and NGE fostered some feedback in the forums to help the game developers to prioritize what needed to be fixed first. After the NGE caused a schism in it's subscriber base (and benefitted other MMO's in gaining the MMO refugees it caused) there was a percieved sense of futility in asking SOE for anything. Hence the emulator project.
I understand there are a few WOW mods out there. If only WOW could be open sourced, would the community mod it into Starcraft? Why not Diablo? Blizzard knows its fanbase. I wonder if they would release all these MMO's and did what SOE tried, a game card subscription that cost just a little more, but gave access to all their products.
The next BIG MMO is........
www.highstreet5.com.sg/information/game%20intro.html
I'm hoping that the next big MMO will be Mortal Online, it looks set to be something great if they deliver what they promise, it would also fit with what the OP said.