I don't... I actually believe the potential exists now more than ever before for someone to create a game that could eventually have millions subscribe to it. Mmorpgs have become so mainstream anymore. I know several people that tinker around with mmos now that a few years back wouldn't have been caught dead playing one or at the least admitting to playing one. It isn't going to happen anytime soon but I can eventually see another game rivaling WoW. You had over half a million people taking a risk to try something they felt would be fresh and new in AoC even for god's sake. With the right developer, a sound business management team, and offering something with a new spin on the genre and level of creativity the market is there for someone else to get a sound footing in the mmo market. Maybe not knock WoW off the hilltop but they could make enough of a mark to be considered in the same ballpark as them.
If Activision has it's way youll be paying for MW2 subs. WOW killer.
IF there is a next "one-time deal", it will be the sandbox theme-park hybrid. All we need is the right company to make it, and that's the tough part (because apparently no mmo devs are up to the task). There's lots of mmo aspects that are not a part of wow, so the sandbox theme-park hybrid offers an entirely new level of value to customers. Ultimately, a new mmo has to provide something new or something refined to compete, and that's been the problem. These wow clones offer nothing new, and there's nothing to refine because wow's already refined the everquest model. Now, we need to refine the pre-cu swg model. That's your next big hit.
The OP is assuming that all players consider leveling to be boring, and that is why they will not do another MMO after WoW... because they are bored by ANY and ALL leveling.
But that isn't the truth. Players tend to have fun leveling THE FIRST TIME through a game. It's only after they are intimately familiar with the game overall, and are leveling alt after alt after alt because they have nothing left to do at max level on their geared-up main character, that they start to complain about leveling.
Saying that just because players don't feel like leveling anymore in WoW (or in any other MMO) and therefore they won't play any new MMOs is like saying that just because players are tired of playing Oblivion they won't play the next elder scrolls game.
The OP is assuming that all players consider leveling to be boring, and that is why they will not do another MMO after WoW... because they are bored by ANY and ALL leveling.
But that isn't the truth. Players tend to have fun leveling THE FIRST TIME through a game. It's only after they are intimately familiar with the game overall, and are leveling alt after alt after alt because they have nothing left to do at max level on their geared-up main character, that they start to complain about leveling.
Saying that just because players don't feel like leveling anymore in WoW (or in any other MMO) and therefore they won't play any new MMOs is like saying that just because players are tired of playing Oblivion they won't play the next elder scrolls game.
Well, speaking for me personally, I haven't made it to the endgame of the last few mmos I've played (AOC and WAR to name a few) because the leveling aspect was so utterly boring. It's not that the devs did a terrible job creating the leveling portion of the game, but because I was simply burnt out on leveling. Their method of quests was nearly identical to wow (in fact a bit easier since each quest had a marker on my minimap), and all I could conciously think of was the fact that I've done this before and have very little desire to do it again. Not even WAR's public quest system helped, particularly since if you fell behind there was no one else who would be there for the public quests (slight design flaw eh?).
Obviously, this thought is just my own personal opinion on the matter, but I doubt that I"m completely alone in thinking this way. Perhaps it has nothing to do with leveling and AOC and WAR just had terrible leveling systems. Yes, that may be the case. But I don't really think so. I mean, how hard is it to screw up the wow leveling model?
Online persistent worlds are the future of entertainment. You're going to see the numbers of people playing these "games" rise to the hundreds of millions within the next couple of decades.
Oh its already been seen. Wow has 5 times the population everquest did. An that game was overpopulated at one point. The next big one will have 75% of wow's players With all the Original players Plus The new ones that come.
You have to realise that technology will not stay the same, in fact every 18 months processor power is doubled. To say that there will _never_ be a mmorpg as popular as WoW is a grave miscalculation. In just 10 years time graphics will be as real as the graphics you see in transformers, and in 15 years time it will be as real as movies. Now, if server technology could keep up with the graphics we will truly see some awesome games. And when the typical formula of mmos has been done away with to appeal to more people I bet it will appeal to an infinately broader public.
Also you have to realise that todays input methods are what keeps people away from the games, what if instead of using keyboard and mouse, you hooked up with some kind of visor and with motions etc you controlled your character. This would appeal to a much broader audience and I wouldn't be surprised if in 10-20 years WoWs subscriber numbers would seem tiny. If technology is cheap and has a broad appeal millions, if not billions will hook up to these virtual worlds. What we have seen of MMORPGs so far is just around 10 years of development. We could compare it with movies, the first 10 years we had silent black and white movies, they didn't draw in a huge public awareness because they didn't seem real enough. When we got proper sound and scripts millions started watching, then we went to colour and even more real scripts and now 100s of millions started watching.
You can see my analogy - when games become as real as real life it will appeal to a much broader audience, and games as we know them will be as ancient as silent movies are to the movie goers of today.
So in conclusion, WoW is just the beginning. Just be patient and 100s of millions of people will start playing our genre
My reason being is that WoW introduced many to the benefits of the MMO community.
ie the Banter on teamspeak or ventrillo, Meeting new people, Assistance with Technical faults from fellow geeky mates etc
I started MMOs way back and what keeps me wanting to play is the community rather than the gam type. I think that will ring true for the millions of comparative MMO novices that began their careers with WoW. MMOs are like a drug, u start and its the most amazing thing ever, even an overwhealming experience, butt as u get more immersed it becomes just day to day thrills however its something u require..
I mean im on MMO Hiatus at the mo cos there really isnt anything out there i havent played or that makes me want to go back, with a small inclin to reactivate AoC if some other friends do.
None the less the millions of MMO players are here to stay and the ones that leave will always be replaced. That i belive is almost Fact. MMOs are the way forward... can you ever say u have 100+ days played on a console game (apart from Halo and gears of war fanbois that havent yet realised FPS on the PC is better )
Not sure what you mean. Eventually something else will come along and replace it. Whether the replacement will be as dominating, who knows, but I will agree the chances of something dominating like Wow has are low.
Now I am talking about fantasy RPGs here. I think lego universe could be huge for the kids (and me) I think a real GTA MMO (made by rockstar) could be huge. Mass Effect also. The majority of the Internet is calling Bioware's SW:TOR a WoW clone already so I'm not sure how that's going to go. Probably big box sale then much lower monthly subs.
Take that (the bit in blue) with a grain of salt. There are people who will call any MMO out there a WoW clone - even those that pre-date it. I've seen people say EQ1 and AC1 are both horrible WoW clones; yes I'm serious. It's right up there with people saying a MMO has failed and has a dying player population before it's even launched.
They bash MMOs 'cause it makes them feel "cool" in some way... and calling it a "WoW clone" is the obvious choice, since people love to bash anything that's popular.
I don't know if WoW is a one-time thing as in no other MMO will ever top it... That might well be the case. If/when it happens, though, I dont' think it'll be another WoW-type MMO to do it, though... in my opinion anyway.
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Comments
Fans of WOW , are not neceserally MMO fans.
I can bet that great chunk of even hardcore WOW players will never play any MMO again.
If Activision has it's way youll be paying for MW2 subs. WOW killer.
IF there is a next "one-time deal", it will be the sandbox theme-park hybrid. All we need is the right company to make it, and that's the tough part (because apparently no mmo devs are up to the task). There's lots of mmo aspects that are not a part of wow, so the sandbox theme-park hybrid offers an entirely new level of value to customers. Ultimately, a new mmo has to provide something new or something refined to compete, and that's been the problem. These wow clones offer nothing new, and there's nothing to refine because wow's already refined the everquest model. Now, we need to refine the pre-cu swg model. That's your next big hit.
The OP is assuming that all players consider leveling to be boring, and that is why they will not do another MMO after WoW... because they are bored by ANY and ALL leveling.
But that isn't the truth. Players tend to have fun leveling THE FIRST TIME through a game. It's only after they are intimately familiar with the game overall, and are leveling alt after alt after alt because they have nothing left to do at max level on their geared-up main character, that they start to complain about leveling.
Saying that just because players don't feel like leveling anymore in WoW (or in any other MMO) and therefore they won't play any new MMOs is like saying that just because players are tired of playing Oblivion they won't play the next elder scrolls game.
Well, speaking for me personally, I haven't made it to the endgame of the last few mmos I've played (AOC and WAR to name a few) because the leveling aspect was so utterly boring. It's not that the devs did a terrible job creating the leveling portion of the game, but because I was simply burnt out on leveling. Their method of quests was nearly identical to wow (in fact a bit easier since each quest had a marker on my minimap), and all I could conciously think of was the fact that I've done this before and have very little desire to do it again. Not even WAR's public quest system helped, particularly since if you fell behind there was no one else who would be there for the public quests (slight design flaw eh?).
Obviously, this thought is just my own personal opinion on the matter, but I doubt that I"m completely alone in thinking this way. Perhaps it has nothing to do with leveling and AOC and WAR just had terrible leveling systems. Yes, that may be the case. But I don't really think so. I mean, how hard is it to screw up the wow leveling model?
Saying that lvling a new character Is to much work is like Telling you to go delete all your Alt's.
Online persistent worlds are the future of entertainment. You're going to see the numbers of people playing these "games" rise to the hundreds of millions within the next couple of decades.
Enjoy these early years while they last.
Oh its already been seen. Wow has 5 times the population everquest did. An that game was overpopulated at one point. The next big one will have 75% of wow's players With all the Original players Plus The new ones that come.
You have to realise that technology will not stay the same, in fact every 18 months processor power is doubled. To say that there will _never_ be a mmorpg as popular as WoW is a grave miscalculation. In just 10 years time graphics will be as real as the graphics you see in transformers, and in 15 years time it will be as real as movies. Now, if server technology could keep up with the graphics we will truly see some awesome games. And when the typical formula of mmos has been done away with to appeal to more people I bet it will appeal to an infinately broader public.
Also you have to realise that todays input methods are what keeps people away from the games, what if instead of using keyboard and mouse, you hooked up with some kind of visor and with motions etc you controlled your character. This would appeal to a much broader audience and I wouldn't be surprised if in 10-20 years WoWs subscriber numbers would seem tiny. If technology is cheap and has a broad appeal millions, if not billions will hook up to these virtual worlds. What we have seen of MMORPGs so far is just around 10 years of development. We could compare it with movies, the first 10 years we had silent black and white movies, they didn't draw in a huge public awareness because they didn't seem real enough. When we got proper sound and scripts millions started watching, then we went to colour and even more real scripts and now 100s of millions started watching.
You can see my analogy - when games become as real as real life it will appeal to a much broader audience, and games as we know them will be as ancient as silent movies are to the movie goers of today.
So in conclusion, WoW is just the beginning. Just be patient and 100s of millions of people will start playing our genre
I rather Disagree
My reason being is that WoW introduced many to the benefits of the MMO community.
ie the Banter on teamspeak or ventrillo, Meeting new people, Assistance with Technical faults from fellow geeky mates etc
I started MMOs way back and what keeps me wanting to play is the community rather than the gam type. I think that will ring true for the millions of comparative MMO novices that began their careers with WoW. MMOs are like a drug, u start and its the most amazing thing ever, even an overwhealming experience, butt as u get more immersed it becomes just day to day thrills however its something u require..
I mean im on MMO Hiatus at the mo cos there really isnt anything out there i havent played or that makes me want to go back, with a small inclin to reactivate AoC if some other friends do.
None the less the millions of MMO players are here to stay and the ones that leave will always be replaced. That i belive is almost Fact. MMOs are the way forward... can you ever say u have 100+ days played on a console game (apart from Halo and gears of war fanbois that havent yet realised FPS on the PC is better
)
Save a Tree.... Eat a Beaver
In the book translated to swedish, the mule becomes Mulan
Carry on...
u assume that they will find a way around copper wire limits that we are experiencing then
Save a Tree.... Eat a Beaver
Not sure what you mean. Eventually something else will come along and replace it. Whether the replacement will be as dominating, who knows, but I will agree the chances of something dominating like Wow has are low.
the reson why WOW has so many people playing
is because it plays on just about any computer
and plays it smooth.
A friend of mine has been playing WOW since it
came out on there cheep walmart computer.
He only plays a few hours a week.
The more computers that can play your game =
more people that will play your game.
Take that (the bit in blue) with a grain of salt. There are people who will call any MMO out there a WoW clone - even those that pre-date it. I've seen people say EQ1 and AC1 are both horrible WoW clones; yes I'm serious. It's right up there with people saying a MMO has failed and has a dying player population before it's even launched.
They bash MMOs 'cause it makes them feel "cool" in some way... and calling it a "WoW clone" is the obvious choice, since people love to bash anything that's popular.
I don't know if WoW is a one-time thing as in no other MMO will ever top it... That might well be the case. If/when it happens, though, I dont' think it'll be another WoW-type MMO to do it, though... in my opinion anyway.
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops