Originally posted by Theocritus Judging by what we are seeing this year, the future appreantly is single player oriented games with co-op features so they can charge a monthly and call them MMOs......As for sandboxes, Im just not sure...It seems like every time I try a sandbox it ends up being FFA PVP with some guy who has maxxed every skill just waiting for every noob in the game to enter so he can slaughter them and brag how great he is.
You got it *almost* but not quite right.
Yes, the future is single player oriented with co-op content .. but NOT sub based. F2P is the trend. So we are getting FREE SP games with co-op content .. and that is the future.
When I left my first MMO, I had a thirst for more.
Now, I look gently at the idea of a new MMO...or a RPG...or talking a walk!
I'm an ex-MMOer, but that like saying you stop alcohol...that is never 100% accurate even if you haven't commit into it for years. But I definitedly knows what I don't want from a MMO...if a dev try to make me do something I don't want to do, I will just switch game, Facebook have dozens of cool games! Thing is...getting my attention on any game is a feat, keeping my interest hasn't for more than a week or two hasn't really happen for almost a decade...
See, EQ, CoX (year+) and the dozen other MMOs I tried for less than a month are kinda as hangover...I learn from them. If I see a new beer in store, I don't have to try it, if I see a new MMO I don't have to try it either.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
As tools get better there will be more indy games but they will have an uphill battle because players will look at them and expect "indy ideas" but at AAA quality.
This I think as an indie dev is a huge challenge. Producing a game that is compelling enough, and looks graphically on par with AAA titles. I realize we won't quite be there, but hopefully close enough that gamers will give us the benefit of the doubt and play the game. Once they start playing I hope it will captivate them.
Video games in general haven't been doing well. I can't think of a single good single player game released after games like Silent Hill 4, Fatal Frame II, Suikoden III, which were in the early 2000s. MMORPGs were all that was left for intelligent adults. WoW was stunning, EQ 2 was stunning, Vanguard failed. That was all she wrote. There's been nothing but garbage ever since. Korean grinders (these games have never been good), WoW clones and 'indie games' (i.e. shit). It's laughable that people consider games like Darkfall good. I've NEVER played shit games, and I NEVER will. From the time I was born (1984) up till about 2008 or so (counting WotLK as a sort of half-satisfaction, mostly because they hadn't destroyed the original world yet) I have been showered with good games. Why would I ever settle for shit games? All I want is one good MMORPG in my life; every other need is fulfilled by previous games. But no, that one damn good MMORPG is impossible to find these days. I am having to settle for Project 1999 (and you should too). If there is anything else out there please let me know.
I think MMOs will continue down the cookie cutter model. The biggest thing is that the consoles haven't really had MMORPG immersion yet save for Everquest and DC Heroes on PS3.
Whenever we get bogged down in these discussions I reflect back on what made the MMO experience special.
I had limited UO oline experience as I came in the tail end
EQ was my first MMORPG and I consdier it the granddady of 3d MMORPGs. It was successful because the worlds were boundless and it took time to level death had a penalty and the end game was far from simple. What stood out for me was that camping while seemingly wrestched was actually a great social activity. It forced players to socialize becuase you might have to wait 10 hours for a specific item and you often were competing with others.
The initial end game of the planeof fear and the plane of hate were ball breakers (partly to buggy programming).
The other seemingly frustrating aspect was corpse recovery and experience loss. While players bemoaned corpse recovery and exp loss it actually added an element of risk and some of the corpse recovery runs one could go on were extremely difficult and time consuming.
The other interesting dynamic was travel. Even when portals were put into play you still had to travel 15-20 real time minutes by foot (until horses were put into the game) to get to crucial parts of the game.
The biggest takaway from EQ was that everything I got I had earned and not everyone could get there and not everyone had access in the sense that your group/guild had to be good enough to beat the end game.
Crafting stunk and PVP was downright silly but those were not really the essence of the game.
DAOC was next and what was alluring about DAOC was the PVE areas and then the shared PvP areas. For those of who never played it. When you got high enough in level your quests required to go into an area where you could be doing PvE killing and you could get ganked.
There was also a dungeon that had entrances from the three different regions and if you could beat the guardians that separate the 3 realms you could go over to the other side and gank players PvP.
Crafting was a big improvement in DAOC compared to EQ.
Next for me was SWG and it was quite possibly the greatest MMORPG until the completely was inexplicably changed and killed off.
What made SWG so great was sandbox aspect, player housing, player vendors and the variance in items based on how good or bad the material you obtained. You could obtain varying qualities of materials by placing mining stations or other resopurce gathering equipment and based onw here you palced in the world the quality would vary and over time the quality would vary.
Killing certain monsters (krayts) would yield widely varying qualities krayt scales and you could then in turn take those krayt scales to sell or create a gun and then have the gun spliced.
There were several aspects to crafting and the variety was limitless.
The other amazing aspect was the mysterious jedi and halycron aspect which was literally like finding Willy Wonka's gonlden ticket. Nobody knew how to becomea jedi and it was almost a mythical idea.
Again the worlds were immense and it could take you forever to get to the outer reaches of the game.
WOW was next and it was addicting but it was in my mind a massive step backwards from my original experiences in MMORPG gaming. It was too cookei cutter and there wasn't diversity and everything was instanced. Don't get me wrong I ahd fun with WoW but it was more the best supported game rather than the best game.
D&D DDO was my last MMORPG venture and it was fun but it also was pretty repetitive.
MMORPGs need more of what SWG had going for it. They need to the aspect where there is risk they need to have wide varience and not 5 chocies. You need to have 1000s of versions of weapons where one could be .01% better than anotehr becuase the materials were better or production was better because the skills weer better for one crafter.
Crafting needs to be more complex and variable. Merchant classes need to be viable again.
The biggest thing is dynamic content some of which players will provide
So to get to the point we'll continue to see the WoW clones until they are no longer profitable and the reduction in the market is actually a good thing because the market needs to be challenged and I thinkas a result we'll see the very straightforward MMOs but ultimately the complex dynamic MMO that offers risk/reward and causes anguish will cater to a longer term model.
It's even possible MMOs will move towards planet Entropia's model where money can be gaiend from the game.
Comments
You got it *almost* but not quite right.
Yes, the future is single player oriented with co-op content .. but NOT sub based. F2P is the trend. So we are getting FREE SP games with co-op content .. and that is the future.
MMOs are here to stay.
But the form may change a lot.
When I left my first MMO, I had a thirst for more.
Now, I look gently at the idea of a new MMO...or a RPG...or talking a walk!
I'm an ex-MMOer, but that like saying you stop alcohol...that is never 100% accurate even if you haven't commit into it for years. But I definitedly knows what I don't want from a MMO...if a dev try to make me do something I don't want to do, I will just switch game, Facebook have dozens of cool games! Thing is...getting my attention on any game is a feat, keeping my interest hasn't for more than a week or two hasn't really happen for almost a decade...
See, EQ, CoX (year+) and the dozen other MMOs I tried for less than a month are kinda as hangover...I learn from them. If I see a new beer in store, I don't have to try it, if I see a new MMO I don't have to try it either.
- "If I understand you well, you are telling me until next time. " - Ren
This I think as an indie dev is a huge challenge. Producing a game that is compelling enough, and looks graphically on par with AAA titles. I realize we won't quite be there, but hopefully close enough that gamers will give us the benefit of the doubt and play the game. Once they start playing I hope it will captivate them.
Thanks,
Mike
Working on Social Strategy MMORTS (now Launched!) http://www.worldalpha.com
It is Vivendi trying to sell Activiion-Blizzard.
I think MMOs will continue down the cookie cutter model. The biggest thing is that the consoles haven't really had MMORPG immersion yet save for Everquest and DC Heroes on PS3.
Whenever we get bogged down in these discussions I reflect back on what made the MMO experience special.
I had limited UO oline experience as I came in the tail end
EQ was my first MMORPG and I consdier it the granddady of 3d MMORPGs. It was successful because the worlds were boundless and it took time to level death had a penalty and the end game was far from simple. What stood out for me was that camping while seemingly wrestched was actually a great social activity. It forced players to socialize becuase you might have to wait 10 hours for a specific item and you often were competing with others.
The initial end game of the planeof fear and the plane of hate were ball breakers (partly to buggy programming).
The other seemingly frustrating aspect was corpse recovery and experience loss. While players bemoaned corpse recovery and exp loss it actually added an element of risk and some of the corpse recovery runs one could go on were extremely difficult and time consuming.
The other interesting dynamic was travel. Even when portals were put into play you still had to travel 15-20 real time minutes by foot (until horses were put into the game) to get to crucial parts of the game.
The biggest takaway from EQ was that everything I got I had earned and not everyone could get there and not everyone had access in the sense that your group/guild had to be good enough to beat the end game.
Crafting stunk and PVP was downright silly but those were not really the essence of the game.
DAOC was next and what was alluring about DAOC was the PVE areas and then the shared PvP areas. For those of who never played it. When you got high enough in level your quests required to go into an area where you could be doing PvE killing and you could get ganked.
There was also a dungeon that had entrances from the three different regions and if you could beat the guardians that separate the 3 realms you could go over to the other side and gank players PvP.
Crafting was a big improvement in DAOC compared to EQ.
Next for me was SWG and it was quite possibly the greatest MMORPG until the completely was inexplicably changed and killed off.
What made SWG so great was sandbox aspect, player housing, player vendors and the variance in items based on how good or bad the material you obtained. You could obtain varying qualities of materials by placing mining stations or other resopurce gathering equipment and based onw here you palced in the world the quality would vary and over time the quality would vary.
Killing certain monsters (krayts) would yield widely varying qualities krayt scales and you could then in turn take those krayt scales to sell or create a gun and then have the gun spliced.
There were several aspects to crafting and the variety was limitless.
The other amazing aspect was the mysterious jedi and halycron aspect which was literally like finding Willy Wonka's gonlden ticket. Nobody knew how to becomea jedi and it was almost a mythical idea.
Again the worlds were immense and it could take you forever to get to the outer reaches of the game.
WOW was next and it was addicting but it was in my mind a massive step backwards from my original experiences in MMORPG gaming. It was too cookei cutter and there wasn't diversity and everything was instanced. Don't get me wrong I ahd fun with WoW but it was more the best supported game rather than the best game.
D&D DDO was my last MMORPG venture and it was fun but it also was pretty repetitive.
MMORPGs need more of what SWG had going for it. They need to the aspect where there is risk they need to have wide varience and not 5 chocies. You need to have 1000s of versions of weapons where one could be .01% better than anotehr becuase the materials were better or production was better because the skills weer better for one crafter.
Crafting needs to be more complex and variable. Merchant classes need to be viable again.
The biggest thing is dynamic content some of which players will provide
So to get to the point we'll continue to see the WoW clones until they are no longer profitable and the reduction in the market is actually a good thing because the market needs to be challenged and I thinkas a result we'll see the very straightforward MMOs but ultimately the complex dynamic MMO that offers risk/reward and causes anguish will cater to a longer term model.
It's even possible MMOs will move towards planet Entropia's model where money can be gaiend from the game.