You actually think they are going to make something new from scratch ? They haven't been innovative in over 15 years. What makes you think they are going to start now especially since they have less talent now than they did years ago. Until they prove me wrong, they're going to use something of old and make something brand new out of it. I hope they prove me wrong because I would love to see that happen.
The sole and simple reason for now is: Because they said so!
It might be all lies of course and with the expectation of something completely new you might be disappointed because whatever you imagine might have been very different or just bigger. But I'd trust them if they say that it will not be connected to the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo universes. They have WoW still going strong, they develop SC2 and D3, making an MMO out of those or a WoW follow up would prolly suck the used idea too try for the moment.
So far Blizzard has been good at making awesome imo. Even if they reuse the same three universes, the games have always been something special.
Given Blizzard's track record it will be derivative but polished to a highly addictive sheen to mesmerize us in to believing we are playing something new and revolutionary.
Im a big blizzard fan but this one has me a little worried. One of the early statements is that it would have more mainstream/widespread appeal and as a real gamer I can't say id be happy if they come out with some horse crap made to attract kids and moms which is what I think of when someone says "mainstream" appeal.
If your goal is to attract the housewife and the dad who likes to watch football all weekend while drinking beer then youve completely missed the boat with me.
Some are forgetting about Blizzards first game of Warcraft was: Orcs & Humans, not really a quality game, but not a crapper either. Blizzard has made some bad games but they also pulled them when it would not work out. Anyone remember Hellfire: Diablo expansion? That was a crap game.
The original Warcraft was released in 94, and was certainly a quality game for it's time. Hellfire was a 3rd party expansion released by Sierra.
I think this could go one of two ways. Either A) They are making WoW's successor, something very similar to WoW in preparation for WoW's eventual decline so that they can move a lot of ex and current WoW players to their new game and continue to be the king. Or, They make something completely different that doesn't directly compete with WoW's target audience while they maintain WoW and continue to push it forward.
Frankly, I hope it's B, and I hope they deliver something awesome, perhaps a Sci-fi sandbox game. This genre is dying for one, and I would love to see them make one and it be a booming success. I'd love to see the day that the forums are filled with "Just another **enter Blizzard's sci-fi sandbox title here** clone".
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.
See, what a lot of people are failing to realize is the fact that it is, indeed, a business. While right now World of Warcraft holds the vast majority of subscriptions to online games, why not tie up the loose ends?
This is what Blizzard is doing, they already own the casual crowd, and with all of the sand-box MMOers who want something more complicated, more in-depth, more time consuming, who make up the OTHER majority of gamers, Blizzard wants to deliver this product to you.
This could be for a variety of reasons, including dominating the entire genere spread of MMOs. They could be afraid that SW:TOR will steal away all of their casual gamers, so they are going to need something for retribution. But who knows.
My assessment is that Blizzard will be producing a very in depth, sand-box mmo, and have a monopoly on the MMO gaming industry, and continue to make ludacris amounts of money off of it.
At this point why would Blizzard even think about a new MMO? Their biggest competitor is themselves. That is awfull buisness. Until WoW bleeds massive subs there is no need for them to release a new MMO. Everyone likes to call new games a WoW killer, blizzards new MMO will be the wow killer. Personally I think if blizzard was smart they would ride the WoW train untill it runs out of steam, all the while polishing a new MMO. Of course they would need to figure out a way to make sure their graphics were not out dated by the time WoW runs out of steam.
WOW has roughly 11M players. There are 300M people in the US, 400M in Europe, 1.3B in China where ~300M are middle class. And i haven't even count Australia yet. Obviously, they are not satisfied with merely 11M :P
See, what a lot of people are failing to realize is the fact that it is, indeed, a business. While right now World of Warcraft holds the vast majority of subscriptions to online games, why not tie up the loose ends? This is what Blizzard is doing, they already own the casual crowd, and with all of the sand-box MMOers who want something more complicated, more in-depth, more time consuming, who make up the OTHER majority of gamers, Blizzard wants to deliver this product to you. This could be for a variety of reasons, including dominating the entire genere spread of MMOs. They could be afraid that SW:TOR will steal away all of their casual gamers, so they are going to need something for retribution. But who knows. My assessment is that Blizzard will be producing a very in depth, sand-box mmo, and have a monopoly on the MMO gaming industry, and continue to make ludacris amounts of money off of it.
I don't think so.
Not that it wouldn't be a great thing to have a really good deep sandbox on the market from a developer with a proven track record like Blizzard; but below is a quote that was recently stated in an interview with Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO):
"What we've announced at Blizzard is that we have Starcraft [II] coming, Diablo has been in production… and a new, unannounced MMO that has a little more broad appeal."
Read into that what you will; to me it says WoW 2.0 with a new IP and (if we're very lucky) a much better graphical engine and meta-game mechanics. We may even see traditionally RPG style combat mechanics replaced with a more universally appealing FPS style compatible with the console crowd.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
I would like a new Sci Fi mmo, with seemless borders in space between planets so you could travel on a planetary level. I always wondered why Starcraft ghost was scrapped, it defenately had graphic style. Maybe they could use leftovers to a major sc mmo.
However the codename Hydra(?) dosnt exactly sound like sci fi, it sound like a Mythology inspired thing, which actually would suit the "whole new thing on mmo scene", since Gods and Heros surprisingly was scrapped. Speculation about why a Sony game which recieved best of show rewards on E3 was scrapped, could - if one like conspiracys - go in a direction with key developers leaving to Blizzard or that the game wouldnt be able to compete with a Blizzard gigantor game covering same universe. The codename might just be a decoy though; Starcraft was appereantly called Medusa before published.
Honestly though, personally im not sure i dig the whole ancient rome thing. Gief a Starcraft mmo, with mechs, ships and playerbuild battlestations.
"Until WoW bleeds massive subs there is no need for them to release a new MMO."
Yeah, they should wait until their income is dried up to begin work on a 6-year-development-cycle game with their 150+ person company. That makes a lot of business sense!
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I would like a new Sci Fi mmo, with seemless borders in space between planets so you could travel on a planetary level. I always wondered why Starcraft ghost was scrapped, it defenately had graphic style. Maybe they could use leftovers to a major sc mmo. However the codename Hydra(?) dosnt exactly sound like sci fi, it sound like a Mythology inspired thing, which actually would suit the "whole new thing on mmo scene", since Gods and Heros surprisingly was scrapped. Speculation about why a Sony game which recieved best of show rewards on E3 was scrapped, could - if one like conspiracys - go in a direction with key developers leaving to Blizzard or that the game wouldnt be able to compete with a Blizzard gigantor game covering same universe. The codename might just be a decoy though; Starcraft was appereantly called Medusa before published.
Honestly though, personally im not sure i dig the whole ancient rome thing. Gief a Starcraft mmo, with mechs, ships and playerbuild battlestations. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TybY_g5_Q7Y&feature=related as mmo and with 2010+ graphic?
The codename might not be based on the setting.
I've a half-baked and completely unsupported theory that Blizzards new MMO will launch on multiple platforms simultaneously, hence the "beast with many heads" analogy.
There will be a PC head, which is running on Vista so is suffering a memory leak.
There will be an Xbox head, which has a large red ring on it and seems to be immobile.
There will be a Playstation head, which will be afk watching Blu-Ray.
There might also be a Wii head, which is worrying as it might be my granny.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
"Until WoW bleeds massive subs there is no need for them to release a new MMO." Yeah, they should wait until their income is dried up to begin work on a 6-year-development-cycle game with their 150+ person company. That makes a lot of business sense!
..Agreed, it actually looks like WoW have reached its limits for growth. It dosnt seem to go beyond the current subs. Allso, its starts to get a bit difficult to hype WoW< its a 5 year old game, the graphic is subpar and ppl is actually starting to feel abit old and conventionel if they play WoW; "...im actally afraid to admit it, i like WoW" and suchs phrases is starting to get very common.
The codename might not be based on the setting. I've a half-baked and completely unsupported theory that Blizzards new MMO will launch on multiple platforms simultaneously, hence the "beast with many heads" analogy. There will be a PC head, which is running on Vista so is suffering a memory leak.
There will be an Xbox head, which has a large red ring on it and seems to be immobile.
There will be a Playstation head, which will be afk watching Blu-Ray.
There might also be a Wii head, which is worrying as it might be my granny.
I defenately hope they will develop the game so it will be the best game, without looking at which platforms it can run on to get the broadest market.
..If you really want a revoloutinary MMO platform, you might want to look into Projekt Natal. The sheer thought of grinding 200 mobs, standing on the floor and doing the actual moves, makes me really, really exhausted though:)
"Until WoW bleeds massive subs there is no need for them to release a new MMO." Yeah, they should wait until their income is dried up to begin work on a 6-year-development-cycle game with their 150+ person company. That makes a lot of business sense!
I was a litte unclear They should work on the next MMO, but they should not release it until WoW starts to fade. I thought maybe my graphics comment would have cleared that up. There is absolutly no need to release an MMO when your the top dog, unless its for a niche crowd. Even then that still begs the question why even bother with a niche game? While your nich game is out WoW still bleeds sub, leaving a huge void.
Its bad buisness to compete with yourself period.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore) Now Playing: N/A Worst MMO: FFXIV Favorite MMO: FFXI
Well I did watch this one video on youtube where they were asked about it I believe at blizzcom. What they told the interviewer is what they've been brainstorming about and it seems they've even talked about a possible MMOFPS or MMORTS, so let's see what turns out.
Actually let me see if I can hunt down that youtube video, give me a sec...=)
Well I did watch this one video on youtube where they were asked about it I believe at blizzcom. What they told the interviewer is what they've been brainstorming about and it seems they've even talked about a possible MMOFPS or MMORTS, so let's see what turns out.
Actually let me see if I can hunt down that youtube video, give me a sec...=)
That would be the smart thing to do. A MMOFPS or MMRTS doesn't compete with WoW, since it is an MMORPG.
I don't play wow simply because of the design philosophy they followed (they just don't develop anything in the game that interests me anymore they have always just added on to what they have but never really add anything new) but I do agree with a few posters here people who complain about Blizzard are foolish to say the least they put out some of the most polished product on the market and if the concept interests me I will try it out but I am fairly certain I won't play for long after that they just don't follow a pattern I'm comfortable with from a design standpoint and I highly doubt they will next time. I would certainly love though to see a World Of Starcraft and have heard people say that would be either very difficult or impossible which I don't believe if SOE pulled off SWG (as it were) then Blizz could design a Starcraft with multiple planets and such.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I once speculated on one of my blog articles about Blizzards next game and I think I got it wrong and here is why and it comes from one statement. Someone from Blizzard said that their new game would be aimed at even a larger market than WoW currently has because the game would have "greater appeal" to more people. So I do not think it will be a sandbox game as I once thought because sandbox games really do not have that kind of greater appeal to more people.
This leads me to think it is some kind of persistent world FPS(FPS games are played more than any other games currently on the market) or it will be a sports game based on soccer. I could be totally off base here, but those are the only two things I can think of right off hand that will appeal to more people than WoW.
The more accessable you make a game and its parts, the more you find players who want to group with you....
WOTLK had something new for a 5 year old mmo in group play:
The simple message ....
"No more dungeons can be launched at this time" because everyone and his dog was motivated to do heroic dungeons and intro Raids with a PUG rated succes rate of 90% without too much dying.
Think about it: you all want to group. But you can't group with ease if you only offer hardcore.
That's why they mentioned "mainstream".
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Jeff Kaplan was the lead quest desginer, left WOW for blizzards next gen and yet unannounced MMO. Given the success of WOW what could they possibly be working on ? Anyone know or care to speculate ?
Considering how slow Blizzard is moving these days, despite all of their income, I'm guessing we won't see it for at least 10 years, perhaps more. At that point who cares really.
I remember reading about Starcraft Ghost year or so ago and telling my friend at work about it. Only to learn they scrapped that project. Why ? I'm thinking that perhaps thats where they're going. World of Starcraft. They could do it and it'd be great.
They could make the game like DAOC with three main factions, Terran, Protoss & Zerg.
Then split them up based on the different classes.
Doing a search for World of Starcraft brings up various results like a youtube video that apparently shows gameplay and some articles.
I remember reading about Starcraft Ghost year or so ago and telling my friend at work about it. Only to learn they scrapped that project. Why ? I'm thinking that perhaps thats where they're going. World of Starcraft. They could do it and it'd be great. They could make the game like DAOC with three main factions, Terran, Protoss & Zerg. Then split them up based on the different classes. Doing a search for World of Starcraft brings up various results like a youtube video that apparently shows gameplay and some articles.
They've already announced it won't be one of their older IPs, so unless they go back on the statement there won't be any Starcraft or Diablo MMO.
The reason SC Ghost was scrapped was because it just wasn't building to being a good game, and I've seen the videos of gameplay. It looked like a weak Mass Effect with a bit of Metal Gear thrown in, I guess Blizz still isn't very good at making shooters....=/
They've already announced it won't be one of their older IPs, so unless they go back on the statement there won't be any Starcraft or Diablo MMO. The reason SC Ghost was scrapped was because it just wasn't building to being a good game, and I've seen the videos of gameplay. It looked like a weak Mass Effect with a bit of Metal Gear thrown in, I guess Blizz still isn't very good at making shooters....=/
..Yes but you forget that the game is as old as WoW. It was due to release in 2003. Its engine performed Graphic which on a mmo lvl is - imo ( and completely subjective), compareable at the very least with Fallen Earth, maybe even a stylished version of Tabular Rasa. However i agree that the games content looked like a niche. A Platform/shooter thing which is made by the bundle and never really finds more then average sale. I simply think it was scrapped because the game didnt have potentiel to be something extraordinary, there was a risk the game would end up as "the most forgetable Blizzard game".
Someone mentioned a Fps mmo, a wagon i could be on. It would have broader appeal, especially if it contains the typical rps elements - so if you arent that good at making snap quick headshots, you can craft a shotgun which blow everthing away in a huge radius, you could be a medic/healer or something like that. The game would allso work fine as cybersport, it would be fun to watch since it would be fairly skillbased.
Always fun to try and predict a Blizzard game. They attract the best of the best in the field (on a site as CGtalk.com Blizzard intertainment actually seems more atractive then Lucas art, when it comes to high profiled jobs) and have money to support it. And usualy they end up surprising everybody in the end.
..Yes but you forget that the game is as old as WoW. It was due to release in 2003. Its engine performed Graphic which on a mmo lvl is - imo ( and completely subjective), compareable at the very least with Fallen Earth, maybe even a stylished version of Tabular Rasa. However i agree that the games content looked like a niche. A Platform/shooter thing which is made by the bundle and never really finds more then average sale. I simply think it was scrapped because the game didnt have potentiel to be something extraordinary, there was a risk the game would end up as "the most forgetable Blizzard game". Someone mentioned a Fps mmo, a wagon i could be on. It would have broader appeal, especially if it contains the typical rps elements - so if you arent that good at making snap quick headshots, you can craft a shotgun which blow everthing away in a huge radius, you could be a medic/healer or something like that. The game would allso work fine as cybersport, it would be fun to watch since it would be fairly skillbased. Always fun to try and predict a Blizzard game. They attract the best of the best in the field (on a site as CGtalk.com Blizzard intertainment actually seems more atractive then Lucas art, when it comes to high profiled jobs) and have money to support it. And usualy they end up surprising everybody in the end.
Wrong track. Mainstream is mainstream: everyone can play and everyone can find his/her tuning.
Do you know many grandma's who play FPS or sports games. I don't?
I know grandma's on DS brain trainer though.
The tric is to appeal to everyone from casual to hardcore (scaling) and from teenager to grand daddy.
Because even tomorrow's grand daddy played on a computer as a teenage kid.
Massively played online alternate reality with extreme different options of play and rewards for everyone. Perhaps even for the handicapped.
That's all we know for now.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
They have no incentive to produce another MMO right now, even though I personally think WOW is crap, it still turns over a massive profit for them. WOW2 or whatever would cost them development money that they dont need to spend.
Comments
The sole and simple reason for now is: Because they said so!
It might be all lies of course and with the expectation of something completely new you might be disappointed because whatever you imagine might have been very different or just bigger. But I'd trust them if they say that it will not be connected to the Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo universes. They have WoW still going strong, they develop SC2 and D3, making an MMO out of those or a WoW follow up would prolly suck the used idea too try for the moment.
So far Blizzard has been good at making awesome imo. Even if they reuse the same three universes, the games have always been something special.
Given Blizzard's track record it will be derivative but polished to a highly addictive sheen to mesmerize us in to believing we are playing something new and revolutionary.
Im a big blizzard fan but this one has me a little worried. One of the early statements is that it would have more mainstream/widespread appeal and as a real gamer I can't say id be happy if they come out with some horse crap made to attract kids and moms which is what I think of when someone says "mainstream" appeal.
If your goal is to attract the housewife and the dad who likes to watch football all weekend while drinking beer then youve completely missed the boat with me.
The original Warcraft was released in 94, and was certainly a quality game for it's time. Hellfire was a 3rd party expansion released by Sierra.
"Good? Bad? I'm the guy with the gun."
I think this could go one of two ways. Either A) They are making WoW's successor, something very similar to WoW in preparation for WoW's eventual decline so that they can move a lot of ex and current WoW players to their new game and continue to be the king. Or,
They make something completely different that doesn't directly compete with WoW's target audience while they maintain WoW and continue to push it forward.
Frankly, I hope it's B, and I hope they deliver something awesome, perhaps a Sci-fi sandbox game. This genre is dying for one, and I would love to see them make one and it be a booming success. I'd love to see the day that the forums are filled with "Just another **enter Blizzard's sci-fi sandbox title here** clone".
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.
See, what a lot of people are failing to realize is the fact that it is, indeed, a business. While right now World of Warcraft holds the vast majority of subscriptions to online games, why not tie up the loose ends?
This is what Blizzard is doing, they already own the casual crowd, and with all of the sand-box MMOers who want something more complicated, more in-depth, more time consuming, who make up the OTHER majority of gamers, Blizzard wants to deliver this product to you.
This could be for a variety of reasons, including dominating the entire genere spread of MMOs. They could be afraid that SW:TOR will steal away all of their casual gamers, so they are going to need something for retribution. But who knows.
My assessment is that Blizzard will be producing a very in depth, sand-box mmo, and have a monopoly on the MMO gaming industry, and continue to make ludacris amounts of money off of it.
WOW has roughly 11M players. There are 300M people in the US, 400M in Europe, 1.3B in China where ~300M are middle class. And i haven't even count Australia yet. Obviously, they are not satisfied with merely 11M :P
I don't think so.
Not that it wouldn't be a great thing to have a really good deep sandbox on the market from a developer with a proven track record like Blizzard; but below is a quote that was recently stated in an interview with Bobby Kotick (Activision CEO):
"What we've announced at Blizzard is that we have Starcraft [II] coming, Diablo has been in production… and a new, unannounced MMO that has a little more broad appeal."
Read into that what you will; to me it says WoW 2.0 with a new IP and (if we're very lucky) a much better graphical engine and meta-game mechanics. We may even see traditionally RPG style combat mechanics replaced with a more universally appealing FPS style compatible with the console crowd.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
I would like a new Sci Fi mmo, with seemless borders in space between planets so you could travel on a planetary level. I always wondered why Starcraft ghost was scrapped, it defenately had graphic style. Maybe they could use leftovers to a major sc mmo.
However the codename Hydra(?) dosnt exactly sound like sci fi, it sound like a Mythology inspired thing, which actually would suit the "whole new thing on mmo scene", since Gods and Heros surprisingly was scrapped. Speculation about why a Sony game which recieved best of show rewards on E3 was scrapped, could - if one like conspiracys - go in a direction with key developers leaving to Blizzard or that the game wouldnt be able to compete with a Blizzard gigantor game covering same universe. The codename might just be a decoy though; Starcraft was appereantly called Medusa before published.
Honestly though, personally im not sure i dig the whole ancient rome thing. Gief a Starcraft mmo, with mechs, ships and playerbuild battlestations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TybY_g5_Q7Y&feature=related as mmo and with 2010+ graphic?
"Until WoW bleeds massive subs there is no need for them to release a new MMO."
Yeah, they should wait until their income is dried up to begin work on a 6-year-development-cycle game with their 150+ person company. That makes a lot of business sense!
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
The codename might not be based on the setting.
I've a half-baked and completely unsupported theory that Blizzards new MMO will launch on multiple platforms simultaneously, hence the "beast with many heads" analogy.
There will be a PC head, which is running on Vista so is suffering a memory leak.
There will be an Xbox head, which has a large red ring on it and seems to be immobile.
There will be a Playstation head, which will be afk watching Blu-Ray.
There might also be a Wii head, which is worrying as it might be my granny.
Playing: EVE, Final Fantasy 13, Uncharted 2, Need for Speed: Shift
..Agreed, it actually looks like WoW have reached its limits for growth. It dosnt seem to go beyond the current subs. Allso, its starts to get a bit difficult to hype WoW< its a 5 year old game, the graphic is subpar and ppl is actually starting to feel abit old and conventionel if they play WoW; "...im actally afraid to admit it, i like WoW" and suchs phrases is starting to get very common.
Blizzard do need a injection of salt water imo.
I defenately hope they will develop the game so it will be the best game, without looking at which platforms it can run on to get the broadest market.
..If you really want a revoloutinary MMO platform, you might want to look into Projekt Natal. The sheer thought of grinding 200 mobs, standing on the floor and doing the actual moves, makes me really, really exhausted though:)
I was a litte unclear They should work on the next MMO, but they should not release it until WoW starts to fade. I thought maybe my graphics comment would have cleared that up. There is absolutly no need to release an MMO when your the top dog, unless its for a niche crowd. Even then that still begs the question why even bother with a niche game? While your nich game is out WoW still bleeds sub, leaving a huge void.
Its bad buisness to compete with yourself period.
Waiting for:EQ-Next, ArcheAge (not so much anymore)
Now Playing: N/A
Worst MMO: FFXIV
Favorite MMO: FFXI
Well I did watch this one video on youtube where they were asked about it I believe at blizzcom. What they told the interviewer is what they've been brainstorming about and it seems they've even talked about a possible MMOFPS or MMORTS, so let's see what turns out.
Actually let me see if I can hunt down that youtube video, give me a sec...=)
That would be the smart thing to do. A MMOFPS or MMRTS doesn't compete with WoW, since it is an MMORPG.
I don't play wow simply because of the design philosophy they followed (they just don't develop anything in the game that interests me anymore they have always just added on to what they have but never really add anything new) but I do agree with a few posters here people who complain about Blizzard are foolish to say the least they put out some of the most polished product on the market and if the concept interests me I will try it out but I am fairly certain I won't play for long after that they just don't follow a pattern I'm comfortable with from a design standpoint and I highly doubt they will next time. I would certainly love though to see a World Of Starcraft and have heard people say that would be either very difficult or impossible which I don't believe if SOE pulled off SWG (as it were) then Blizz could design a Starcraft with multiple planets and such.
but yeah, to call this game Fantastic is like calling Twilight the Godfather of vampire movies....
I once speculated on one of my blog articles about Blizzards next game and I think I got it wrong and here is why and it comes from one statement. Someone from Blizzard said that their new game would be aimed at even a larger market than WoW currently has because the game would have "greater appeal" to more people. So I do not think it will be a sandbox game as I once thought because sandbox games really do not have that kind of greater appeal to more people.
This leads me to think it is some kind of persistent world FPS(FPS games are played more than any other games currently on the market) or it will be a sports game based on soccer. I could be totally off base here, but those are the only two things I can think of right off hand that will appeal to more people than WoW.
WotLK and its patches learned me one thing:
The more accessable you make a game and its parts, the more you find players who want to group with you....
WOTLK had something new for a 5 year old mmo in group play:
The simple message ....
"No more dungeons can be launched at this time" because everyone and his dog was motivated to do heroic dungeons and intro Raids with a PUG rated succes rate of 90% without too much dying.
Think about it: you all want to group. But you can't group with ease if you only offer hardcore.
That's why they mentioned "mainstream".
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Considering how slow Blizzard is moving these days, despite all of their income, I'm guessing we won't see it for at least 10 years, perhaps more. At that point who cares really.
I remember reading about Starcraft Ghost year or so ago and telling my friend at work about it. Only to learn they scrapped that project. Why ? I'm thinking that perhaps thats where they're going. World of Starcraft. They could do it and it'd be great.
They could make the game like DAOC with three main factions, Terran, Protoss & Zerg.
Then split them up based on the different classes.
Doing a search for World of Starcraft brings up various results like a youtube video that apparently shows gameplay and some articles.
They've already announced it won't be one of their older IPs, so unless they go back on the statement there won't be any Starcraft or Diablo MMO.
The reason SC Ghost was scrapped was because it just wasn't building to being a good game, and I've seen the videos of gameplay. It looked like a weak Mass Effect with a bit of Metal Gear thrown in, I guess Blizz still isn't very good at making shooters....=/
..Yes but you forget that the game is as old as WoW. It was due to release in 2003. Its engine performed Graphic which on a mmo lvl is - imo ( and completely subjective), compareable at the very least with Fallen Earth, maybe even a stylished version of Tabular Rasa. However i agree that the games content looked like a niche. A Platform/shooter thing which is made by the bundle and never really finds more then average sale. I simply think it was scrapped because the game didnt have potentiel to be something extraordinary, there was a risk the game would end up as "the most forgetable Blizzard game".
Someone mentioned a Fps mmo, a wagon i could be on. It would have broader appeal, especially if it contains the typical rps elements - so if you arent that good at making snap quick headshots, you can craft a shotgun which blow everthing away in a huge radius, you could be a medic/healer or something like that. The game would allso work fine as cybersport, it would be fun to watch since it would be fairly skillbased.
Always fun to try and predict a Blizzard game. They attract the best of the best in the field (on a site as CGtalk.com Blizzard intertainment actually seems more atractive then Lucas art, when it comes to high profiled jobs) and have money to support it. And usualy they end up surprising everybody in the end.
Wrong track. Mainstream is mainstream: everyone can play and everyone can find his/her tuning.
Do you know many grandma's who play FPS or sports games. I don't?
I know grandma's on DS brain trainer though.
The tric is to appeal to everyone from casual to hardcore (scaling) and from teenager to grand daddy.
Because even tomorrow's grand daddy played on a computer as a teenage kid.
Massively played online alternate reality with extreme different options of play and rewards for everyone. Perhaps even for the handicapped.
That's all we know for now.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
They have no incentive to produce another MMO right now, even though I personally think WOW is crap, it still turns over a massive profit for them. WOW2 or whatever would cost them development money that they dont need to spend.