I find it deeply concerning that the biggest differential between GW2 and WoW is apparently the lack of quest hubs. There may not be quest hubs but there is still an endless supply of uninvolving and generic quests that are easily completed in several minutes.
I just want a remake of EverQuest to be honest. I cannot stand how everything is instanced now. I long for the days of open-world ultra-rare spawns that are on 1 or 2 week respawn timers with a standard deviation of 18hrs. The drops off these mobs were pieces required for quests that were highly involving and EPIC in every sense of the word. Many quests took weeks if not months to complete. Such quests created server legends. Imagine adding a PvP dynamic to open-world highly contested rare spawns.
The thing is, back then games like EQ were designed for gamers, not "normal" people. Majority of players dedicated tons of time to the game and not a whole lot else in most cases, which is why we have the stereotypes of the nerdy 20somethings living in moms basement, etc when it comes to MMOs.
Now, playing MMOs is a much more common thing, and so they try to create games that appeal to massive numbers of people rather than the relatively small population of a decade or more ago. Reality is, if they designed games with content like that, which was that difficult to get and with so much time between chances to get it, most people cant be bothered with it when they can just play something else where they have plenty of chances to get the good stuff. The lack of those people ever bothering witht he game would create a much smaller population, basically a dead game, and thos ethat do play would complain about the fact that there is no pop, etc and get bored as well.
It just doesnt appeal to the majority of players like it once did, and it wouldnt bring in the profit to cover the costs of a fully developed AAA MMO. Your only real bet is for an indie game, which as we have seen many times, just doesnt hold up very well. Less experienced programmers / devs, cheaper hardware/software, and generally an inability to fix their problems or provide proper service.
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The thing is, back then games like EQ were designed for gamers, not "normal" people. Majority of players dedicated tons of time to the game and not a whole lot else in most cases, which is why we have the stereotypes of the nerdy 20somethings living in moms basement, etc when it comes to MMOs.
Now, playing MMOs is a much more common thing, and so they try to create games that appeal to massive numbers of people rather than the relatively small population of a decade or more ago. Reality is, if they designed games with content like that, which was that difficult to get and with so much time between chances to get it, most people cant be bothered with it when they can just play something else where they have plenty of chances to get the good stuff. The lack of those people ever bothering witht he game would create a much smaller population, basically a dead game, and thos ethat do play would complain about the fact that there is no pop, etc and get bored as well.
It just doesnt appeal to the majority of players like it once did, and it wouldnt bring in the profit to cover the costs of a fully developed AAA MMO. Your only real bet is for an indie game, which as we have seen many times, just doesnt hold up very well. Less experienced programmers / devs, cheaper hardware/software, and generally an inability to fix their problems or provide proper service.