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Next generation MMORPG - true or a myth?
F2PMMO
Member UncommonPosts: 122
Almost all major titles launched claim to be a next generation MMO. But I guess the MMO community as a whole in general views this as hype which hardly ever if at all proves to be true.
What would a true next generation MMO be to you?
- To me it would be the game that after I, among others, have hunted down all evil in an area, piece is restored, civilization blossoms again and later new threats come to haunt. In short a game that changes with the gameplay. All games up until present are static, I want a dynamic game with evolving gameplay and environment.
What was the last true next generation game to launch and due to what feature deserved that game the title next generation?
- I am not sure.
So what do you think?
Comments
I'd way get teh whole idea about Next generation or any genearation a game is and focus on what you like. Unless you just like something because it is next generation, it really is kind of a meaningless factor. Being next gen doesn't make a game good or bad.
If some new feature made all other games look outdated I guess the next generation thing would certainly have a meaning. And you cannot circumvent that it's very often used in the marketing of a game, since the games present themselves as such.
I think dynamic gameplay definately would change the MMO genre all other factors kept equal.
In my experience, the MMO genre has de-evoled since its inception, there is no next gen for me. MMO developers used to see the possibilities large, persistent worlds with thousands of players could hold - they could allow the players to live a second life, albeit a life with all the boring bits replaced with hacking other people to pieces or devoted to great works of artifice.
Then, as MMO's became more expensive to produce, coupled with gaming as a whole becoming more popular with what is now the 'casual' crowd, led to MMOs becoming the dumbed down, sad carrot-on-stick affairs they are today.
Lead developers started to become business and sales men (like Paul Barnett) rather than gamers actually interested in the games they were making (like Richard Garriot), and in turn MMOs became nothing but shallow attempts to keep people subscribing as long as possible with cynical grind based gameplay. Developers know players don't like grinds, they keep them in because they can force players to repeat the same task over and over again until they reach the 'fun' bits, maximising the amount of money a player has to spend on the game.
Personally, I'm not particularly fond of being cheated like this.
The point of that entire rant? To make this one simple point - all the MMOs I'm looking forward to aren't next gen, they're games that're going back to square one.
IMO a true next gen mmorpg is one which contains a dynamic sandbox type fighting system and revolves around player skill and strategy than time put into the game. AKA Maybe "Darkfall".
If I can't kill you, my friend over there hiding in that bush will...
Lunova i doubt you even played that game.
Hahaha calling Darkfall next-gen hahaha, i am pretty sure the features of Darkfall are as old as MMO's at a whole.
Pretty much exactly spot on.
The bottom line is that the potential of the genre to create real virtual worlds has been lost, and replaced with an online version of a largely linear single player type "game". That change was a huge loss for the genre, and I wonder whether we will ever get the other type of MMO back again to any meaningful degree, now that the large casual market has "spoken" and basically said it likes the largely linear single player type "game" much more than a platform that is trying to be a virtual world.
Essentially I think that the market moved when WoW broadened the market, and the core MMO players are now a niche within the huge casual market that every developer and publisher seems to be chasing. Yes, I know people will mention Darkfall, but to be honest I'm always skeptical about the success of any game with a FFA+loot ruleset.
It might be so but a next gen game doesn't need to be a sandbox. It will have to have features that moves the genre forward a lot.
Look on UO and EQ, the shift there was a generation shift. EQ changed a lot on how MMOs worked, good and bad things but it changed totally.
The feature I believe wis the really big thing is that the server change because of your actions. If you messed up, a small village got burned to the ground and will either stay that way until the server resets or someone does a quest serie to rebuild it.
Another features that would change everything would be time. Night and day should change totally, so most stores closed at night, the shady people got out and the undead starts walking. And seasons, snow in the winter, flowers at spring, yellow leaves falling at autumn and so on.
Right now all worlds doesn't really feel alive. You do your stuff, logg out and when you logg on next day everything is exactly like it was the day before.
A third features that will change things is that everything you do actually impacts you character. Played Neverwinter nights? If you did evil stuff there you actually turned evil and your character can suddenly do totaly different things.
Sandboxes can be intresting, it might be the way of the next generation game but it can be a theme park game or a mix of those two. It might even be something totaly new, who knows.
But my guess is more Guildwars 2 than DF, I read a lot about both those games and I think Strain is more likely to pull that off than Taso. Strain has done a next generation game once before, Diablo. Diablo totaly changed the action RPG genre and Strain do have a good resumé, don't know a single thing Taso did before DF.
I am not saying that DF isn't the next gen game, I am however sceptical to it. I have another guess also: Bethesda. They might just give the genre what it needs. And don't count out Bioware yet either, they do tend to surprise with good games and they migh put the RPG back in MMORPG.
The next gen game will in any case probably change both the character and the world around him as you play.
Darkfall certainly isn't next gen or revolutionary. It's UO2, with a mix of features from AC, EVE and shadowbane.
The only thing I can think of that Darkfall does 'new' is the NPC spawning system, whereby if you hunt enough NPCs in one area they'll start to spawn in a new area (migrating, if you will). Conversely, if they're left alone long enough they'll spawn buildings and 'hero' mobs.
Not enough to make it next-gen, in my books. But as I said early, I'm quite happy with going back to square one.
Next Gen Schmext Gen.
I'm not looking for a next-gen MMO, because they are always the same. I'm looking for a first gen MMO, with today's graphics and modified gameplay.
I think Shadowbane was the only next-generation game. It was the first game where guilds could build their own cities, and siege and destroy other guilds cities.
These games take so long to make that it's hard to tell what generation that would fit into.
But roughly speaking..
We can say forsure what the first gen were.. UO/EQ/AC/DAoC
After that came the Next Gen.. WoW/L2/EQ2/AC2/SWG/VG/DF(DF still to be released)
Thrid Gen (WoW clones).. AoC/WAR
Fourth Gen..we will see in another 5 years?
"Next Gen" is a combination of two things: technology and lessons learned from previous games.
1st generation: UO/EQ/AC/DAoC
2nd Generation: WoW ---> WAR
I don't think the third generation has begun yet.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Well in my opinion "the one and only" next gen mmo was released already a few years a go
It's called world of warcraft, that game was a milestone in the mmorpg industy and the start of the new generation we see today. I will not say this is good or bad or that the games after wow where good or bad, but for me wow was the first next gen mmo
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waiting for ... nothing..
WAR is definitly a child of WoW. And yes I was also hoping for much more out of Thrid Gen.
The only next gen game will be this one :P.
Emotiv
WOW wasn't next generation at all. They did nothing new in WOW.
For next gen immersion I agree.
Jack me in.
*insert klaxon* Wrong Tabula Rasa's environment changed with the story. They destroyed a large town to go with the story actually. And Lord of the Rings Online's environment changes subtly as you progress through the story. In TR many quests and NPCs were removed as well for the story.
For me a next gen MMO is an MMO that actually has a new idea or goes back to REAL sandbox style, although it's not throwing you in at the deep end. And it doesn't force open EVERYWHERE everything PvP (see: Darkfall) I'm thinking like SWG gameplay. I feel I'll be waiting a long while though.
Thank You,
-Eric
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Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
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== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
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Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
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Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
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"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
WOW wasn't next generation at all. They did nothing new in WOW.
No, but WoW was a major turning point. That's what makes it the only Next Gen game.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
The Next generation will start with either A) the death of WoW or
A mass exodus from WoW to another game.
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Guys! I'm hopelessly lost in a mountain of mole hills! Them damn moles!
Oh, player driven changes. That's going to be a bit.
Actually, I heard of an MMO that was planning on letting players shape the world around them. Although after this hype of "Using a big spell will make a crater" everyone will come to find that the crater lasts 24 hours and the only everlasting way to shape the universe is making a house.
____________________________
Telthalion Rohircil - Guardian - Elemandir - Lord of The Rings Online
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== RIP == Torey - Commando - Orion - Tabula Rasa == RIP ==
---
Jordaniel Torey - Navy Megathron, Active Armor Tank - Tranquility - EVE Online
---
Torey Scott - Rifleman - Fallen Earth
____________________________
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but I know World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones." - Albert Einstein
Next generation would mean a significant improvement in game play. As far as I know, no one has managed to do that yet. Graphics have improved, quality has improved, but game play is pretty much the same as it was.
You can replace mod grinding with questing and instances, but the fact is, players are still just grinding through boring content so they can hear that next ding.
How could I play a game that hasnt come out yet???
If I can't kill you, my friend over there hiding in that bush will...
Next generation in what respect?
A lot of games can claim they are next generation because they take advantage of the latest graphics libraries, multi core cpu's, newer sound cards, multiple monitors or even some crazy input devices (think Nintendo Wii).
Not many can claim to be next generation in their ideas. Most people seem to be looking for break throughs in the AI of games. In this department I think we have to cut the developers a little slack. Artificial intelligence in computer science is large and complex topic. CPU and memory requirements for complex decision trees can be enormous and practically unfeasible with modern hardware. Even the best super computers cannot play a perfect game of Go.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville