Blizzard was always very adept at taking an existing idea with great potential and be the one who polishes it, adds fluff and makes it appealing and easy for the masses. They did it with the RTS genre (Dune II -> W-W3, SC). They did it with the action RPG genre ( console action rpgs -> D1, D2 (amagad mouse!) ). And they did it with the MMORPG genre, taking EQ as the model, we all know of the result. MMORPG genre being very wide in actual definition sports various different approaches, be it sandbox vs theme park, pve vs pvp, twitch vs dice, etc. So the genre still has many different approaches Blizzard can grasp and shape into shiny polished successfull game for the masses. Personaly I wouldn't mind if they took EVE as the role model and made SC sandboxish MMO outa it.
I see Blizzard going towards a Horror Fantasy Genre MMO because I do believe that the next big sandbox thing will be Horror Fantasy.If they are targeting a 2011-2012 release they will be competing with 38 studios "Copernicus",FC "The Secret World" and CCP "World of Darkness"(if it's still on schedule).
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
__________________________ "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
The answer is " Do they think WOW will be declining when the new MMORPG is ready".
If Blizzard thinks WOW will be declining by then, then they will make the next game like WOW ( a replacement)
If Blizzard thinks WOW will be holding steady, then they will make the new game either a sandbox, or a FPS type game.
I personally think they will go for a FPS-space mmorpg. WOW is getting bigger every day, and the rate of it's growth has not stopped. Even in 2 years, I don't think Blizzard will want to compete with itself.
Even in 2 years, I don't think Blizzard will want to compete with itself.
The EARLIEST the next MMO that Blizzard will introduce will be in 2013, but probably around 2014 or 2015.
Look at Teara.. this is the first of next gen MMOs visually wise... maybe more will come and will very attractive to casual WOW players. If I was Blizzard, I'd aim for 2011 or 2012.
Look at Teara.. this is the first of next gen MMOs visually wise... maybe more will come and will very attractive to casual WOW players. If I was Blizzard, I'd aim for 2011 or 2012.
It took them seven years to make WoW and they started making the next-gen MMO 2007-2008ish. They aren't going to want to release a product that is already triumpth by an older product.
I believe their next MMO is a replacement for WOW. Not that they'll shut down WOW, but the new MMO will catch WOW's ever-increasing amount of bailing players.
Blizzard wants to keep WOW's playerbase, and WOW alone cannot do that. Time is the enemy of all, as they say. It only makes sense to make a new fantasy MMO that would appeal to those in WOW's current playerbase who are beginning to tire of the game.
Look at Teara.. this is the first of next gen MMOs visually wise... maybe more will come and will very attractive to casual WOW players. If I was Blizzard, I'd aim for 2011 or 2012.
It took them seven years to make WoW and they started making the next-gen MMO 2007-2008ish. They aren't going to want to release a product that is already triumpth by an older product.
No it didn't, it took them 5 years to make WoW. Now take into account that they already have an MMO under their belt, could probably re-use some of WoW's code, I wouldn't be surprised if you see Bliz's next MMO in 4-5 years from when they started making it.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike Loved: Star Wars Galaxies Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
Reports before said that Blizzard was hiring for new positions to make a, "next-generation MMO" but it doesn't really entail anything after that. That's where I kind of get excited. Think about it. All these indie companies are promising the world to you: including NPCube with Dark and Light and Aventurine SA and Darkfall, yet one completely busted and Aventurine has yet made good to many of their promises. However, if it was one to be able to take chances from a large-scale MMOG, I think it would have to be a large-scale company who makes so much money that they could make up from the loses in case the idea doesn't come through. Blizzard has already crafted and perfected the old-generation MMOGs, which I consider to be linear by design - will their next MMO be same? I just highly doubt that they would make the same because then two of their games would then be in competition of one another. In other words, I think it makes little sense to completely recycle the same success but instead look for a new crowd of MMOGer's who take on the role of games differently than the linear-played World of Warcraft. What are your thoughts about it?
First and foremost I can not see how you can condemn DFO promises as it has yet to released and if that's your way to have a cheap dig then that's very sad indeed, at the very least let us see it before you condemn it to the likes of D'n'L, though from your comments it appears you have already struck it from your gaming choice. While it makes sense for us to be sceptical surely anyone with half a bain will at the very least allow it to prove it's pedigree based on fact not fiction.
Personally I hope that Blizzard don't touch the sandbox side of gaming after seeing what the produced in Wow then NO please don't let them near it for me. There is no way they gonna move away from making $$'s they don't care about the gamer just the profit, as can be seen by the continued release of their expansions. Why anyone continues to buy them is beyond me it adds at the very most and extra few weeks gaming to the high end gamers.
The only way a good sandbox game will surface is if a company like CCP step into the ring, they have done what many others have failed since the early days. Look how long it has taken them to get 30K + to login daily. I salute them for following their dream and building to it.
Carebear linear theme park games are here to stay as people want the easy option instead of the challenging games sadly...Saying that sooner or later all the Wow carebears will/have become mature gamers, well to an extent, many may argue about that point! But they have learnt how to manage a game like Wow so that will give them the heads up for a stronger challenge for sure.
Many Wow gamers are already leaving Wow having been ripped off by the latest expansion having already maxed out within a week of release, this could be the down fall for Wow. They and all gaming companies need to see past their short sightedness and start to provide games for us to enjoy for the long haul rather than the short haul.
But in doing so they have to provide for the hard core and the family members who do not have the time to spend like collage students and folks unfortunate not to have work who play for many hours and are able to achieve what family player can not. So you can see it will be hard for any company to create utopia within an MMO.
That said sooner or later someone will make a game which will be difficult and FFA with perma death and all the other function which theme park players hate, but they too will try them as they look for a better challenge, one hopes anyway...
I think Blizzard is smart enough to somehow tie their next game into wow to further retain their playerbase.
Something like an all access pass or some sort of perks that encourage people to play both games. That way they are not competing with themselves, but with everyone else by leveraging their current titles with a new game. I don't know how, but that would be the smart move.
I think their next game will be more socially oriented and on a larger scale. Far larger servers with giant landmass. More of a sandbox feel with player created content (housing, ships, crafting, etc). More of a social networking approach to gaming. That is if their claims of next gen are to be believed.
Heres the reason why the next Blizzard MMO will be nothing like WoW. Why would a company with 11 million subs for their MMO want to just simply transfer those people to a new game? They wouldnt, they want to gain fans, not relocate the exsisting ones.
_____________________________ At the turn of the century... In 2008... Cracked.com voted Roosevelt as the most badass President of all time.
Heres the reason why the next Blizzard MMO will be nothing like WoW. Why would a company with 11 million subs for their MMO want to just simply transfer those people to a new game? They wouldnt, they want to gain fans, not relocate the exsisting ones.
While I think there will be differences, fundamentally I believe Blizzard's new mmo will be a themepark (albeit Sci-Fi). Chances are producers are quoting 'if it ain't broke, why fix it'.
Ico Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Heres the reason why the next Blizzard MMO will be nothing like WoW. Why would a company with 11 million subs for their MMO want to just simply transfer those people to a new game? They wouldnt, they want to gain fans, not relocate the exsisting ones.
They are already gaining fans with WOW. What make you think that they need a new type of strategy to continue to do so?
In fact, a WOW-like starcraft mmo will capture all the sci-fi players into MMOs, just like what WOW did for fantasy.
Heres the reason why the next Blizzard MMO will be nothing like WoW. Why would a company with 11 million subs for their MMO want to just simply transfer those people to a new game? They wouldnt, they want to gain fans, not relocate the exsisting ones.
They are already gaining fans with WOW. What make you think that they need a new type of strategy to continue to do so?
In fact, a WOW-like starcraft mmo will capture all the sci-fi players into MMOs, just like what WOW did for fantasy.
I'm not entirely sure about that. I suspect many of those sci-fi people are the same as the current fantasy people. Wowlike games have not done so well at attracting people away from wow. I am not sure that wow in space will produce a mega hit next gen game that is being touted by blizzard. Time will tell, but I think they have enough capital and savy to look outside the box.
To answer Roosevelts question: Retaining 11.5 million customers is far more important than growing the company to 12 million. A successful business should be able to replace themselves, before some other company comes along and does it.
Does Blizzard have the money to make a good Sandbox? Of course they do.
The real problem they face is that they have no developers who can appreciate the original concept of the MMO genre. If they weren't creating an Everquest grinder, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
If Blizzard wanted to, they could make the most amazing MMO ever. But they choose to not to. Why would they? They get all the money they want from WoW.
Funny, 10 million people think it is the most amazing MMO ever.
____________________________________________ im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good
If Blizzard wanted to, they could make the most amazing MMO ever. But they choose to not to. Why would they? They get all the money they want from WoW.
Funny, 10 million people think it is the most amazing MMO ever.
Yeah no kidding. I think WOW has qualified itself already as pretty damn amazing. Adding sandbox elements, which brings a lot of baggage and WILL upset lots of players, might not be what they want. They're going to make another entertaining, content rich MMO, not an experiement in human behavior.
If they wanted, they have the talent to make an excellent sandbox, but considering the budget of their games and the niche sandbox audience, it might not be a good combination.
Reports before said that Blizzard was hiring for new positions to make a, "next-generation MMO" but it doesn't really entail anything after that. That's where I kind of get excited. Think about it. All these indie companies are promising the world to you: including NPCube with Dark and Light and Aventurine SA and Darkfall, yet one completely busted and Aventurine has yet made good to many of their promises. However, if it was one to be able to take chances from a large-scale MMOG, I think it would have to be a large-scale company who makes so much money that they could make up from the loses in case the idea doesn't come through. Blizzard has already crafted and perfected the old-generation MMOGs, which I consider to be linear by design - will their next MMO be same? I just highly doubt that they would make the same because then two of their games would then be in competition of one another. In other words, I think it makes little sense to completely recycle the same success but instead look for a new crowd of MMOGer's who take on the role of games differently than the linear-played World of Warcraft. What are your thoughts about it?
First and foremost I can not see how you can condemn DFO promises as it has yet to released and if that's your way to have a cheap dig then that's very sad indeed, at the very least let us see it before you condemn it to the likes of D'n'L, though from your comments it appears you have already struck it from your gaming choice. While it makes sense for us to be sceptical surely anyone with half a bain will at the very least allow it to prove it's pedigree based on fact not fiction.
Personally I hope that Blizzard don't touch the sandbox side of gaming after seeing what the produced in Wow then NO please don't let them near it for me. There is no way they gonna move away from making $$'s they don't care about the gamer just the profit, as can be seen by the continued release of their expansions. Why anyone continues to buy them is beyond me it adds at the very most and extra few weeks gaming to the high end gamers.
The only way a good sandbox game will surface is if a company like CCP step into the ring, they have done what many others have failed since the early days. Look how long it has taken them to get 30K + to login daily. I salute them for following their dream and building to it.
Carebear linear theme park games are here to stay as people want the easy option instead of the challenging games sadly...Saying that sooner or later all the Wow carebears will/have become mature gamers, well to an extent, many may argue about that point! But they have learnt how to manage a game like Wow so that will give them the heads up for a stronger challenge for sure.
Many Wow gamers are already leaving Wow having been ripped off by the latest expansion having already maxed out within a week of release, this could be the down fall for Wow. They and all gaming companies need to see past their short sightedness and start to provide games for us to enjoy for the long haul rather than the short haul.
But in doing so they have to provide for the hard core and the family members who do not have the time to spend like collage students and folks unfortunate not to have work who play for many hours and are able to achieve what family player can not. So you can see it will be hard for any company to create utopia within an MMO.
That said sooner or later someone will make a game which will be difficult and FFA with perma death and all the other function which theme park players hate, but they too will try them as they look for a better challenge, one hopes anyway...
Bandit
Why does it have to be carebear? Why can't it just be....o....I don't know... a game? I know this might be a fun concept for "hardcore" players to get, but most gamers just want to have fun. Their challenge in life is well their real life like a job and family. WoW is hardly losing anyone to the content being to easy in fact I think they hit a new sub milestone.
I don't care what game they make. It will be a solid well built mmo whatever it is. And it will also be the one they think will make the most money.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day. And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Originally posted by tbox It depends on how forward thinking and amount of risk they want to take.
Sandbox has gotten popular over the years. I mean look at spore and other simulation games which are close to the core of sandbox idea. Mix that with strategy and rpg game play and you have a new gen mmo.
Dev and quest writer content is ok but when players create content then it prolongs the game and keeps things fresh.
One of the cool things about sandbox games is when you can bring in new servers or wipe older ones it is like playing a new game again.
Spore is the biggest flop Peter Monoxlylyly has ever made.
It depends on how forward thinking and amount of risk they want to take.
Sandbox has gotten popular over the years. I mean look at spore and other simulation games which are close to the core of sandbox idea. Mix that with strategy and rpg game play and you have a new gen mmo.
Dev and quest writer content is ok but when players create content then it prolongs the game and keeps things fresh.
One of the cool things about sandbox games is when you can bring in new servers or wipe older ones it is like playing a new game again.
Spore is the biggest flop Peter Monoxlylyly has ever made.
It obviously DIDNT cater to the mainstream.
Yeah, but not for the reason you make it out to be. People actually loved the sandbox part, where you create your dudes and hated the game part. People loved the Creature Creator demo, you could hear nothing but praise about it. The problem was that the game part of Spore was just a linear progression quest of gathering enough of >___< nothing sandbox about it.
If Blizzard wanted to, they could make the most amazing MMO ever. But they choose to not to. Why would they? They get all the money they want from WoW.
Funny, 10 million people think it is the most amazing MMO ever.
and Britney Spears has sold millions of albums. It doesnt mean she can sing.
WoW is what I would consider fastfood. It works well in our instant gratification society. Its a drive-through where epics are handed out with each Happy Meal. It will always appeal to a mass market as most folks are of lower intelligence. The average joe if you will.
Then there are those who are simply too smart to enjoy a game like WoW for very long. Sure we smart folk will occasionally enjoy some gutter trash food once in a while. But we are not dumb enough to eat it everyday. We are a small minority and therefore wont get most MMO's targeted to us. Things like open gameplay are too difficult to the idiot masses who need direction.
Blizz will never make a sandbox MMO. Why should they put in the extra effort to make such a game when the low-brow masses are happy doing their daily quests ?
Why does it have to be carebear? Why can't it just be....o....I don't know... a game? I know this might be a fun concept for "hardcore" players to get, but most gamers just want to have fun. Their challenge in life is well their real life like a job and family.
If Blizzard wanted to, they could make the most amazing MMO ever. But they choose to not to. Why would they? They get all the money they want from WoW.
What's good to you might not be good to someone else. While I'm a little upset that Blizzard only 'linearifed' the genre, I respect that they took seven years to make World of Warcraft, and yet unlike any other large-named MMO maker, has only released one game (thus more focus to this game). You can complain that they haven't make 'the most amazing MMO ever', but World of Warcraft took seven years, tens of millions of dollars, and yet you don't even seem impressed. Maybe the reason they haven't made the game isn't because they don't want to, or don't have the desire to, but because simply it takes longer than the time they had with the new influx of money they've gotten since the success of the MMOG? World of Warcraft has only been out for about half the time it's taken to develop it.
With good MMO i mean something with content. What to do if you dont like quests for example?
And i really admire Blizzard for WoW. Not the game itself, but the MMO culture around it. Its a good introduction to the MMO concept. But all have to agree that its a very basic MMO.
If you wanna do a MMO, the easiest way is to have a linear static gameplay. Pre set rules for everything. And by "good" MMO, i mean something different. Something complex and interesting.
There is no secret why most MMO developers choose the easy road.
Comments
I see Blizzard going towards a Horror Fantasy Genre MMO because I do believe that the next big sandbox thing will be Horror Fantasy.If they are targeting a 2011-2012 release they will be competing with 38 studios "Copernicus",FC "The Secret World" and CCP "World of Darkness"(if it's still on schedule).
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
I don't think they know how to design one.
__________________________
"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
The answer is " Do they think WOW will be declining when the new MMORPG is ready".
If Blizzard thinks WOW will be declining by then, then they will make the next game like WOW ( a replacement)
If Blizzard thinks WOW will be holding steady, then they will make the new game either a sandbox, or a FPS type game.
I personally think they will go for a FPS-space mmorpg. WOW is getting bigger every day, and the rate of it's growth has not stopped. Even in 2 years, I don't think Blizzard will want to compete with itself.
The EARLIEST the next MMO that Blizzard will introduce will be in 2013, but probably around 2014 or 2015.
The EARLIEST the next MMO that Blizzard will introduce will be in 2013, but probably around 2014 or 2015.
Look at Teara.. this is the first of next gen MMOs visually wise... maybe more will come and will very attractive to casual WOW players. If I was Blizzard, I'd aim for 2011 or 2012.
It took them seven years to make WoW and they started making the next-gen MMO 2007-2008ish. They aren't going to want to release a product that is already triumpth by an older product.
I believe their next MMO is a replacement for WOW. Not that they'll shut down WOW, but the new MMO will catch WOW's ever-increasing amount of bailing players.
Blizzard wants to keep WOW's playerbase, and WOW alone cannot do that. Time is the enemy of all, as they say. It only makes sense to make a new fantasy MMO that would appeal to those in WOW's current playerbase who are beginning to tire of the game.
It took them seven years to make WoW and they started making the next-gen MMO 2007-2008ish. They aren't going to want to release a product that is already triumpth by an older product.
No it didn't, it took them 5 years to make WoW. Now take into account that they already have an MMO under their belt, could probably re-use some of WoW's code, I wouldn't be surprised if you see Bliz's next MMO in 4-5 years from when they started making it.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
First and foremost I can not see how you can condemn DFO promises as it has yet to released and if that's your way to have a cheap dig then that's very sad indeed, at the very least let us see it before you condemn it to the likes of D'n'L, though from your comments it appears you have already struck it from your gaming choice. While it makes sense for us to be sceptical surely anyone with half a bain will at the very least allow it to prove it's pedigree based on fact not fiction.
Personally I hope that Blizzard don't touch the sandbox side of gaming after seeing what the produced in Wow then NO please don't let them near it for me. There is no way they gonna move away from making $$'s they don't care about the gamer just the profit, as can be seen by the continued release of their expansions. Why anyone continues to buy them is beyond me it adds at the very most and extra few weeks gaming to the high end gamers.
The only way a good sandbox game will surface is if a company like CCP step into the ring, they have done what many others have failed since the early days. Look how long it has taken them to get 30K + to login daily. I salute them for following their dream and building to it.
Carebear linear theme park games are here to stay as people want the easy option instead of the challenging games sadly...Saying that sooner or later all the Wow carebears will/have become mature gamers, well to an extent, many may argue about that point! But they have learnt how to manage a game like Wow so that will give them the heads up for a stronger challenge for sure.
Many Wow gamers are already leaving Wow having been ripped off by the latest expansion having already maxed out within a week of release, this could be the down fall for Wow. They and all gaming companies need to see past their short sightedness and start to provide games for us to enjoy for the long haul rather than the short haul.
But in doing so they have to provide for the hard core and the family members who do not have the time to spend like collage students and folks unfortunate not to have work who play for many hours and are able to achieve what family player can not. So you can see it will be hard for any company to create utopia within an MMO.
That said sooner or later someone will make a game which will be difficult and FFA with perma death and all the other function which theme park players hate, but they too will try them as they look for a better challenge, one hopes anyway...
Bandit
Asbo
I think Blizzard is smart enough to somehow tie their next game into wow to further retain their playerbase.
Something like an all access pass or some sort of perks that encourage people to play both games. That way they are not competing with themselves, but with everyone else by leveraging their current titles with a new game. I don't know how, but that would be the smart move.
I think their next game will be more socially oriented and on a larger scale. Far larger servers with giant landmass. More of a sandbox feel with player created content (housing, ships, crafting, etc). More of a social networking approach to gaming. That is if their claims of next gen are to be believed.
Heres the reason why the next Blizzard MMO will be nothing like WoW. Why would a company with 11 million subs for their MMO want to just simply transfer those people to a new game? They wouldnt, they want to gain fans, not relocate the exsisting ones.
_____________________________
At the turn of the century...
In 2008...
Cracked.com voted Roosevelt as the most badass President of all time.
This is his story....
Blizzard plays it safe. Look at Warcraft, Diablo, and WoW. You really think they would ever risk putting out a sandbox mmo?
Awwwwwwwwwwwww hell nawwwwwwwwwwww! (Best Will Smith voice)
While I think there will be differences, fundamentally I believe Blizzard's new mmo will be a themepark (albeit Sci-Fi). Chances are producers are quoting 'if it ain't broke, why fix it'.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
They are already gaining fans with WOW. What make you think that they need a new type of strategy to continue to do so?
In fact, a WOW-like starcraft mmo will capture all the sci-fi players into MMOs, just like what WOW did for fantasy.
They are already gaining fans with WOW. What make you think that they need a new type of strategy to continue to do so?
In fact, a WOW-like starcraft mmo will capture all the sci-fi players into MMOs, just like what WOW did for fantasy.
I'm not entirely sure about that. I suspect many of those sci-fi people are the same as the current fantasy people. Wowlike games have not done so well at attracting people away from wow. I am not sure that wow in space will produce a mega hit next gen game that is being touted by blizzard. Time will tell, but I think they have enough capital and savy to look outside the box.
To answer Roosevelts question: Retaining 11.5 million customers is far more important than growing the company to 12 million. A successful business should be able to replace themselves, before some other company comes along and does it.
Does Blizzard have the money to make a good Sandbox? Of course they do.
The real problem they face is that they have no developers who can appreciate the original concept of the MMO genre. If they weren't creating an Everquest grinder, they wouldn't know what to do with themselves.
Funny, 10 million people think it is the most amazing MMO ever.
____________________________________________
im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good
Funny, 10 million people think it is the most amazing MMO ever.
Yeah no kidding. I think WOW has qualified itself already as pretty damn amazing. Adding sandbox elements, which brings a lot of baggage and WILL upset lots of players, might not be what they want. They're going to make another entertaining, content rich MMO, not an experiement in human behavior.
If they wanted, they have the talent to make an excellent sandbox, but considering the budget of their games and the niche sandbox audience, it might not be a good combination.
First and foremost I can not see how you can condemn DFO promises as it has yet to released and if that's your way to have a cheap dig then that's very sad indeed, at the very least let us see it before you condemn it to the likes of D'n'L, though from your comments it appears you have already struck it from your gaming choice. While it makes sense for us to be sceptical surely anyone with half a bain will at the very least allow it to prove it's pedigree based on fact not fiction.
Personally I hope that Blizzard don't touch the sandbox side of gaming after seeing what the produced in Wow then NO please don't let them near it for me. There is no way they gonna move away from making $$'s they don't care about the gamer just the profit, as can be seen by the continued release of their expansions. Why anyone continues to buy them is beyond me it adds at the very most and extra few weeks gaming to the high end gamers.
The only way a good sandbox game will surface is if a company like CCP step into the ring, they have done what many others have failed since the early days. Look how long it has taken them to get 30K + to login daily. I salute them for following their dream and building to it.
Carebear linear theme park games are here to stay as people want the easy option instead of the challenging games sadly...Saying that sooner or later all the Wow carebears will/have become mature gamers, well to an extent, many may argue about that point! But they have learnt how to manage a game like Wow so that will give them the heads up for a stronger challenge for sure.
Many Wow gamers are already leaving Wow having been ripped off by the latest expansion having already maxed out within a week of release, this could be the down fall for Wow. They and all gaming companies need to see past their short sightedness and start to provide games for us to enjoy for the long haul rather than the short haul.
But in doing so they have to provide for the hard core and the family members who do not have the time to spend like collage students and folks unfortunate not to have work who play for many hours and are able to achieve what family player can not. So you can see it will be hard for any company to create utopia within an MMO.
That said sooner or later someone will make a game which will be difficult and FFA with perma death and all the other function which theme park players hate, but they too will try them as they look for a better challenge, one hopes anyway...
Bandit
Why does it have to be carebear? Why can't it just be....o....I don't know... a game? I know this might be a fun concept for "hardcore" players to get, but most gamers just want to have fun. Their challenge in life is well their real life like a job and family. WoW is hardly losing anyone to the content being to easy in fact I think they hit a new sub milestone.
I don't care what game they make. It will be a solid well built mmo whatever it is. And it will also be the one they think will make the most money.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
AMD 4800 2.4ghz-3GB RAM 533mhz-EVGA 9500GT 512mb-320gb HD
Spore is the biggest flop Peter Monoxlylyly has ever made.
It obviously DIDNT cater to the mainstream.
Futilez - Mature MMORPG Community
Correcting people since birth.
"Could Blizzard Pull Off a Sandbox-Type MMORPG"
Anyone can pull off a sandbox type MMORPG.
Spore is the biggest flop Peter Monoxlylyly has ever made.
It obviously DIDNT cater to the mainstream.
Yeah, but not for the reason you make it out to be. People actually loved the sandbox part, where you create your dudes and hated the game part. People loved the Creature Creator demo, you could hear nothing but praise about it. The problem was that the game part of Spore was just a linear progression quest of gathering enough of >___< nothing sandbox about it.
Funny, 10 million people think it is the most amazing MMO ever.
and Britney Spears has sold millions of albums. It doesnt mean she can sing.
WoW is what I would consider fastfood. It works well in our instant gratification society. Its a drive-through where epics are handed out with each Happy Meal. It will always appeal to a mass market as most folks are of lower intelligence. The average joe if you will.
Then there are those who are simply too smart to enjoy a game like WoW for very long. Sure we smart folk will occasionally enjoy some gutter trash food once in a while. But we are not dumb enough to eat it everyday. We are a small minority and therefore wont get most MMO's targeted to us. Things like open gameplay are too difficult to the idiot masses who need direction.
Blizz will never make a sandbox MMO. Why should they put in the extra effort to make such a game when the low-brow masses are happy doing their daily quests ?
My thoughts exactly
What's good to you might not be good to someone else. While I'm a little upset that Blizzard only 'linearifed' the genre, I respect that they took seven years to make World of Warcraft, and yet unlike any other large-named MMO maker, has only released one game (thus more focus to this game). You can complain that they haven't make 'the most amazing MMO ever', but World of Warcraft took seven years, tens of millions of dollars, and yet you don't even seem impressed. Maybe the reason they haven't made the game isn't because they don't want to, or don't have the desire to, but because simply it takes longer than the time they had with the new influx of money they've gotten since the success of the MMOG? World of Warcraft has only been out for about half the time it's taken to develop it.
With good MMO i mean something with content. What to do if you dont like quests for example?
And i really admire Blizzard for WoW. Not the game itself, but the MMO culture around it. Its a good introduction to the MMO concept. But all have to agree that its a very basic MMO.
If you wanna do a MMO, the easiest way is to have a linear static gameplay. Pre set rules for everything. And by "good" MMO, i mean something different. Something complex and interesting.
There is no secret why most MMO developers choose the easy road.