This article is just more of the hype we have seen for MMOs in recent years to help the industry get people buying the same ol stuff. Wildstar and ESO are just skins on top of everything you have played the last few years. There is no innovation or real progress towards evolving the genre worthy to mention from either product.
I will play them for however long they can tickle my hobbiest fancy, but I doubt that will be more than 60 days.
Out of those the only one I am looking forward to is EQN as I am pretty sure the others are nothing more than themepark clones with a few extras..
SOE have realised that people dont want flat out themepark clones and i think this will be a big win for them.. unless of course they totally mess up the game haha
These are the big three? I disagree... Wildstar is in the list but im thinking Star Citizen sits above them all with Citadel of Sorcery taking third place. I dont see EQN or ESo doing well as they are both WoW clones.
As it has been said before EQN really isnt offering anything cutting edge and those who have already been inside of ESO stated clearly that it was a reskinned WoW.
wait what EQN not offering anything cutting edge ?
I don't understand how anyone could call Wildstar (just because the art style matches up with WoW?) or even TESO a WoW clone. Follow the games and you'll see how they differ in gameplay.
Of the big three I'm looking forward to Wildstar the most. I really liked the combat in GW2, but the lack of trinity, poor PvE dungeon mechanics, and no endgame raiding killed it for me. RvR was fun for a while, but it became mindless zerging back and forth and just way too repetitive which is why I'm very wary of TESO since it's making the same mistakes GW2 did. Not to say GW2 is a bad game at all, and I might pick up and enjoy TESO for a month or two.
It was true a few years ago that most people do not do raid content in MMOs, but this has changed with WoW's LFR and now almost everyone who has a max level character has done raid content. I don't have specific statistics, but LFRs are always active in WoW constantly from one I hear so one can assume that most of the people still playing are participating in them (or guild raiding). Raids have the effect of keeping your hardcore active and when your hardcore are active your game seems much more active so as a effect of having raiding in the game I'd say you are likely to bring in more casuals as a result too. Raiding shouldn't be the only major pull of the game though (like Rift) and I think that's what Wildstar has going for it. GW2 had no raiding (at least not in a traditional sense) and suffered from a loss of hardcore players for it.
As for EQ:Next we really don't have much info at all on it. It's mostly focused on tech now because they are pushing Landmark and not Next. Next won't likely release this year and I'd be surprised if we even see an alpha version this year so I'm not sure it should even be on the list. I think Landmark will be a lot of fun, but I'm also excited for what EQ Next might have in store.
Look at these games, is anyone exited about pvp, is anyone exited about raiding, crating and if the answer is no to all 3 I am sorry your game is going to fail. PVP in ESO?, maybe for the 100k DAOC vets but I and a majority of others hate that "pvp" system, crafting in that game, raiding both not looking so good. No home ownership in an ES game, good luck with that. ESO voxels ok , but there is NO character creation worth a flip, not unless you consider Mortal Combats select a player system as character creation. ESO seems to only want to offer positive social features, like a version of minecraft with better graphics minus the hurt feelings. The only thing that looks fun in EQN is using emergent AI to grief, but that will quckly be nerfed if its an option and player structures and safe zones are non destructible. Wildstar, the pvp might be ok but it does need owpvp unless the BGs are fantastic, but they still need pvp servers. Apparently you can own dungeons thats nice. Housing looks good, I worry that by release the crafting system will be sufficiently dumbed down as to no longer matter. Also out of the 3 game Wildstars race selection is little more than a few versions of reskinned humans, a peeve of mine.
Originally posted by Superman0X EQN is a F2P game.... and like most modern F2P games, will offer a sub option.
Some people argue when a Freemium game is described as F2P, thinking a game only really counts as F2P if you can't sub at all, so I try to avoid the pointless digression by being more specific.
Free to play is free to play, whether there's a sub option or not. I play APB for free all the time...
I'll go out on a limb and predict that ESO will sell the most copies at launch, and also have the fastest player loss after launch out of the 3 games mentioned. Zenimax knows that every Skyrim fan is a very strong potential ESO buyer. However, how many of them will be playing it (and subbing) for any length of time is an open question.
ESO will also be converted to freemium well before Wildstar.
Wildstar may be the biggest winner. It will most likely not have epic launch sales, but might retain players better. It has far more "MMO" than ESO, which seems primarily focused on PVP at endgame.
Wildstar is a brand-new IP, so it doesn't come with any baggage or preconceptions. It's also upfront and clear about it's intentions. It doesn't claim to be "based on" or "set in" some other IP universe that is using it's reputation to sell something that it really is not.
EQN is NOT a sandbox by any definition of the word. It has rigid class structures which immediately eliminate any chance of it being called a sandbox. That is a big no no when it comes to sandbox games.
I think they will all do well. Wow is getting really long in the tooth, I did not last a month with the last expansion. Most of my friends have stopped playing too.
I still think the subscription funding will have little effect on the successes of the games. It will the the gameplay that determines that.
Well the term sandbox is a very losely defined term. What it means can be different from many people. In the strictest terms, something like Second Life or indeed Everquest Next Landmark is a pure sandbox. Anything that implements any structure for example classes, quests, zones, etc, one could argue takes away from the sandbox. Still, despite their structured approach I would consider games like Skyrim, GTA series sandboxes.
Back to everquest next, when you read about how their adventure system works, how the worlds constantly changes, how rallying calls work and are dynamic, random and different for every server, how player behavoir effects how your own server develops and even how you can mix every of the 40 standard classes with another class or even multiple classes to create your own uniquely designed class (hardly a rigid class structure is it?), then to me it doesn't sound anything like a themepark and with the added effect of importing your buildings from landmark it very much sounds like Sandbox to me. In fact with the ability of players to destroy and remold the world around them the term sandbox is almost literally applied to Everquest Next. But its still early and we will see how it pans out.
I don't think Everquest Next will be released this year though, but Everquest Landmark will be and that to me is the big dark horse and interesting wild card. If it works Landmark could be a revolution in gaming, yet if it fails it could cast a dark shadow over everquest next.
Subscription based games provide developers with steady revenue they can put back into the game. With a subscription game the pressure is on providing content and value to the players. With a F2P or freemium game the focus shifts to making money. The loss of that pressure to constantly push out new content and value can make things easier on developers but it can also be somewhat of a trap and can lead to prioritizing things that aren't good for the long term game in exchange for short term revenue. That doesn't mean they will, it just means they have to be careful. A good developer that makes a good game will succeed regardless of the model they choose. As a player I like that the subscription model because it does put pressure on the developer to constantly provide value. The numbers that show their is more than a big enough market to support subscription based games.
Also subscription games allow developers to focus resources on the players who are paying for the game. F2P/freemium games have lots of players but revenue is not stable and only around 40% of those players ever spend any money at all. When we are talking about players that make regular monthly transactions that number becomes much much smaller. To maintain similar revenue as a subscription they need vastly more players. That means they need many times the overhead and have to support a lot more players and that comes with a cost. It can also cause a lot more work to be needed stopping bots and exploiters. While F2P players would like nothing more to make it sound like F2P is a pure win situation for the developer it just isn't so. It is a tradeoff. Sometimes that tradeoff pays off, sometimes it doesn't. If a company can maintain their subs numbers and provide value and fun to their players, there is no reason to switch models. If a game failed to provide value as a sub game, I don't think I would be interested in playing it as a free game for any length of time and the company likely wouldn't get any money from me.
A well designed freemium conversion retains most of the benefits of a sub system, because the sub experience is enough better than the free experience that most of the people who are willing to sub still do. There are reasons no major game other than WoW has chosen to stay exclusively sub based in the freemium era. It is, from a profit making standpoint (which is the reason the games are created) an objectively superior *long term* model. Like I said before, it makes sense in the short term to be sub only, because you will get a sub out of some players whose natural tendency is to play free because their impatience to see the content outweighs their frugality, but once numbers start to hit the substantial drop that every single major MMO other than WoW inevitably encounters, the freemium conversion is a no brainer, and any executive that doesn't order it probably needs to be fired.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The Force shall free me.
I think Wildstar is going to have a strong showing. I don't mind the sub (in fact, I approve of it) but I'm a raider who won't be participating in 40-person content. I'd be far more interested in 10-person but I really just don't enjoy being stuck with 20 or 40 people trying to get through a tough dungeon. Give me the same difficulty with a group of people I could actually get to know and it's a different story. Carbine will need to put out a lot of non-20/40 content to keep me playing after I cap level though.
I don't think ESO is going to be in any shape to keep people playing if they persist on an April launch timeframe. And as everyone has noted, EQN won't be out in 2014 so it would be best put on a 2015 list.
1- I agree, Wildstar is trying hard to bring back the old school mechanics, which is good, but unfortunately it won't be enough.
The world is not charming, I just can't get into it, and the leveling experience is painfully boring
I think Wildstar will be punished twice.
By Old School players for its irritating leveling experience which might not even get to the end game they are supposed to play, and by the casual that after the pleasant leveling experience find themselves stuck with an endgame they hate.
2- ESO will be a PvP game, it's clear already. So PvE players will quit pretty soon, as soon as they finish their storyline.
So for ESO everything lies on how good the PvP is going to be, but at the moment no one knows how PvP plays in ESO, so we will have to wait and see.
3- EQNext............... we know nothing really.
But looking at the last 5 games they made, it doesn't look too good for EQNext, but I am willing to give SoE the benefit of the doubt for now
With all the questions regarding the sub MMOs coming out next year. As the ones mentioned above I really suspect that the upcoming Free To Play ones will make a big splash. Hopefully the competition for subscribers in the MMOS mentioned above will drive the quality of the Free to Play ones up. I am optimistic about Blade N Soul, ArcheAge Online. and Gloria Victus. They look great.
I think 2014 will be as good a year for Sub MMOs as it will Free to play
"I have a confession to make: I’ve seen a number of gamers assert their doubts over ESO due to feeling that the game is essentially Firor and Co. trying to create DAOC 2 with an Elder Scrolls skin. Yeah? Well…DO WANT! Honestly, no matter what Zenimax does, ESO isn’t going to be a better Elder Scrolls than games in the single player series. Compromises have to be made for an MMO."
Welcome to everything that is wrong with this genre that has been stagnant, and will remain so.
How bad are things that a gamer asks for a famous IP to be used just so a sequel will actually be made of another game......a game that would not have been made otherwise because few others gave a crap.
As for your compromises have to be made comment, only by piss poor game designers which is exactly what they are, which is why they haven't been able to make anything other than DaoC style games, even with the failed Warhammer Online. You only need to make these kinds of changes when you don't know what you are doing.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Originally posted by Nadia EQN Landmark will release in 2014 -- I dont expect to see EQN until 2015+
Whats funny is that shortly after all the hype for EQNL, Trion announced that they would have a new pixel builder MMO that looks like it is going to be very close to what EQNL is described.....As for the other MMOs, meh...I expect more of the same that we've seen since 2004 and not much to get excited over.
After a dismal 2013 let's hope something decent will be released in 2014.
WILDSTAR: Holds zero interest to me, I don't mind a cartoon shader but the goofy animation style and character rigging is a mjor turnoff. Gameplay looks boring, the pvp looks silly. Sure I haven't tried it firsthand but I honestly don't want to.
ESO: At first I had very little interest in the game, however I'm starting to think it may hold some value. I've never liked the combat animations in Elder Scrolls titles, always felt lacking in substance. Preferred DaggerFall to Oblivion and Skyrim (which always needed heavy modding to feel substantial) but the IP holds much value. What I'm hoping is that the three faction pvp will rival Guild Wars 2 WvW (since I only play GW2 for it) although the released PVP footage seems to be a long way off from being good. With that said I'll give ESO the benefit of the doubt until I can try the beta or we see more media closer to release.
EQN: At first I thought it was silly, then I watched more footage, did some reading, thought about the concepts they've presented and now I'm really looking forward to it. Again I'm hoping they'll have at least a decent form of PVP but the PVE sure does look enticing. Holding fingers that 2014 will be the release!
WORLD OF DARKNESS: Come on CCP, I still feel EVE is one of, if not, the best MMO to date. Please give us some more info in 2014, we're sitting here with bated breath!
Nice article but it is the same old song and dance. Big year for mmos and yet they all seem to fail. ESO will fail the hardest because it is built around pvp, Wildstar is nothing more than a WoW clone and FFXIV will always be for the niche. Believe me I wish we had a great mmo for 2014 but I see nothing but more fail headed for mmo land this year.
Games that will attract mmo players will be DayZ, Destiny and people waiting for The Division in 2015. You also might want to include The Crew (racing mmo) for consoles as well.
That is a naive post. Destiny and The Division are console only games, they will self destruct as the console crowd, as usual, abandons them. Not even worth talking about when it comes to MMO's. The people who play MMO's for the most part will not play them on consoles too, the controller is too constrictive.
EQN is NOT a sandbox by any definition of the word. It has rigid class structures which immediately eliminate any chance of it being called a sandbox. That is a big no no when it comes to sandbox games.
I think they will all do well. Wow is getting really long in the tooth, I did not last a month with the last expansion. Most of my friends have stopped playing too.
I still think the subscription funding will have little effect on the successes of the games. It will the the gameplay that determines that.
Well the term sandbox is a very losely defined term. What it means can be different from many people. In the strictest terms, something like Second Life or indeed Everquest Next Landmark is a pure sandbox. Anything that implements any structure for example classes, quests, zones, etc, one could argue takes away from the sandbox. Still, despite their structured approach I would consider games like Skyrim, GTA series sandboxes.
Back to everquest next, when you read about how their adventure system works, how the worlds constantly changes, how rallying calls work and are dynamic, random and different for every server, how player behavoir effects how your own server develops and even how you can mix every of the 40 standard classes with another class or even multiple classes to create your own uniquely designed class (hardly a rigid class structure is it?), then to me it doesn't sound anything like a themepark and with the added effect of importing your buildings from landmark it very much sounds like Sandbox to me. In fact with the ability of players to destroy and remold the world around them the term sandbox is almost literally applied to Everquest Next. But its still early and we will see how it pans out.
I don't think Everquest Next will be released this year though, but Everquest Landmark will be and that to me is the big dark horse and interesting wild card. If it works Landmark could be a revolution in gaming, yet if it fails it could cast a dark shadow over everquest next.
What is the most important thing when playing a MMO? It would seem to be the avatar you play and it's development. Obviously I can't say that for everyone, but I am fairly confident that the vast majority would support that viewpoint. My objection to calling this game a sandbox is that EQN severly restricts this with their rigid class structure design. Your avatar is pretty much designed for you in EQN, you have to follow their path and wear class specific clothing. You should never find such a major restriction in any game that considers itself a sandbox. The rest of the game play becomes superfluous when you have no freedom with avatar design. Sure the game has lots of sandbox elements, but it fails when it comes to the primary one, avatar development
Originally posted by st3v3b0 Wild Star will end up F2P inside a year. ESO will end up B2P and EQ Next will not be released in 2014. Those are my predictions on 2014.
I'd say you may be spot on.
I derive my strength from passion. Do you feel that? That is what seperates you and I, Jedi!
WS...looks to kiddie style,cartoon graphics are not for me.
TESO i am totally on the fence but RVR or anything pvp will never be a factor in playing it.I want a solid pve experience but really i am more about the combat and class structure than anything else.
EQNext ..the biggest blemish in gaming has to be SOE and that alone will ruin it's chances for success.I realize MANY accept the nickle and diming cash shops and Founders club RMT ideas but many do not and i am one of those.
If SOE was not so damn greedy and just accepted a 15 dollar sub fee,they would have me on board no doubt what so ever,i would quit watching other games and look forward to buying and playing.SOE is to blame for me looking the other way.Oh i did not even mention SWG and recently MTGT shutting down,SOE just has a way of making people mad.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The one game I expect most from in 2014 is called The Repopulation (totally ridiculous name, but it seems to have elements that could be really interesting.
TESO does have a fair pvp, but lack some structure to it, it is chaos first, fun after.
Wildstar is losing out because of the graphics style (look at the comments here, 1 guy out of 50 posts? Fail...
Maybe Wildstar will appeal to the same people that play KittyKat....
EQN - very strategical not to put enough info out yet. Lets wait to see how TESO and Wildstar does and build the info on that.
People might still like themeparks, but to also get the sandbox people in, the future will probably offer a mix of the two (after some more full themepark attempts...)
The best mmorpg this year will be Destiny mark my words. None of the games mentioned can ever hope to reach Bungie's level of quality. Why is mmorpg.com overlooking Destiny? You guys cover single player rpgs nowadays so you can't cover a console mmorpg?
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
Comments
This article is just more of the hype we have seen for MMOs in recent years to help the industry get people buying the same ol stuff. Wildstar and ESO are just skins on top of everything you have played the last few years. There is no innovation or real progress towards evolving the genre worthy to mention from either product.
I will play them for however long they can tickle my hobbiest fancy, but I doubt that will be more than 60 days.
Out of those the only one I am looking forward to is EQN as I am pretty sure the others are nothing more than themepark clones with a few extras..
SOE have realised that people dont want flat out themepark clones and i think this will be a big win for them.. unless of course they totally mess up the game haha
wait what EQN not offering anything cutting edge ?
I don't understand how anyone could call Wildstar (just because the art style matches up with WoW?) or even TESO a WoW clone. Follow the games and you'll see how they differ in gameplay.
Of the big three I'm looking forward to Wildstar the most. I really liked the combat in GW2, but the lack of trinity, poor PvE dungeon mechanics, and no endgame raiding killed it for me. RvR was fun for a while, but it became mindless zerging back and forth and just way too repetitive which is why I'm very wary of TESO since it's making the same mistakes GW2 did. Not to say GW2 is a bad game at all, and I might pick up and enjoy TESO for a month or two.
It was true a few years ago that most people do not do raid content in MMOs, but this has changed with WoW's LFR and now almost everyone who has a max level character has done raid content. I don't have specific statistics, but LFRs are always active in WoW constantly from one I hear so one can assume that most of the people still playing are participating in them (or guild raiding). Raids have the effect of keeping your hardcore active and when your hardcore are active your game seems much more active so as a effect of having raiding in the game I'd say you are likely to bring in more casuals as a result too. Raiding shouldn't be the only major pull of the game though (like Rift) and I think that's what Wildstar has going for it. GW2 had no raiding (at least not in a traditional sense) and suffered from a loss of hardcore players for it.
As for EQ:Next we really don't have much info at all on it. It's mostly focused on tech now because they are pushing Landmark and not Next. Next won't likely release this year and I'd be surprised if we even see an alpha version this year so I'm not sure it should even be on the list. I think Landmark will be a lot of fun, but I'm also excited for what EQ Next might have in store.
Look at these games, is anyone exited about pvp, is anyone exited about raiding, crating and if the answer is no to all 3 I am sorry your game is going to fail. PVP in ESO?, maybe for the 100k DAOC vets but I and a majority of others hate that "pvp" system, crafting in that game, raiding both not looking so good. No home ownership in an ES game, good luck with that. ESO voxels ok , but there is NO character creation worth a flip, not unless you consider Mortal Combats select a player system as character creation. ESO seems to only want to offer positive social features, like a version of minecraft with better graphics minus the hurt feelings. The only thing that looks fun in EQN is using emergent AI to grief, but that will quckly be nerfed if its an option and player structures and safe zones are non destructible. Wildstar, the pvp might be ok but it does need owpvp unless the BGs are fantastic, but they still need pvp servers. Apparently you can own dungeons thats nice. Housing looks good, I worry that by release the crafting system will be sufficiently dumbed down as to no longer matter. Also out of the 3 game Wildstars race selection is little more than a few versions of reskinned humans, a peeve of mine.
Free to play is free to play, whether there's a sub option or not. I play APB for free all the time...
I'll go out on a limb and predict that ESO will sell the most copies at launch, and also have the fastest player loss after launch out of the 3 games mentioned. Zenimax knows that every Skyrim fan is a very strong potential ESO buyer. However, how many of them will be playing it (and subbing) for any length of time is an open question.
ESO will also be converted to freemium well before Wildstar.
Wildstar may be the biggest winner. It will most likely not have epic launch sales, but might retain players better. It has far more "MMO" than ESO, which seems primarily focused on PVP at endgame.
Wildstar is a brand-new IP, so it doesn't come with any baggage or preconceptions. It's also upfront and clear about it's intentions. It doesn't claim to be "based on" or "set in" some other IP universe that is using it's reputation to sell something that it really is not.
Well the term sandbox is a very losely defined term. What it means can be different from many people. In the strictest terms, something like Second Life or indeed Everquest Next Landmark is a pure sandbox. Anything that implements any structure for example classes, quests, zones, etc, one could argue takes away from the sandbox. Still, despite their structured approach I would consider games like Skyrim, GTA series sandboxes.
Back to everquest next, when you read about how their adventure system works, how the worlds constantly changes, how rallying calls work and are dynamic, random and different for every server, how player behavoir effects how your own server develops and even how you can mix every of the 40 standard classes with another class or even multiple classes to create your own uniquely designed class (hardly a rigid class structure is it?), then to me it doesn't sound anything like a themepark and with the added effect of importing your buildings from landmark it very much sounds like Sandbox to me. In fact with the ability of players to destroy and remold the world around them the term sandbox is almost literally applied to Everquest Next. But its still early and we will see how it pans out.
I don't think Everquest Next will be released this year though, but Everquest Landmark will be and that to me is the big dark horse and interesting wild card. If it works Landmark could be a revolution in gaming, yet if it fails it could cast a dark shadow over everquest next.
A well designed freemium conversion retains most of the benefits of a sub system, because the sub experience is enough better than the free experience that most of the people who are willing to sub still do. There are reasons no major game other than WoW has chosen to stay exclusively sub based in the freemium era. It is, from a profit making standpoint (which is the reason the games are created) an objectively superior *long term* model. Like I said before, it makes sense in the short term to be sub only, because you will get a sub out of some players whose natural tendency is to play free because their impatience to see the content outweighs their frugality, but once numbers start to hit the substantial drop that every single major MMO other than WoW inevitably encounters, the freemium conversion is a no brainer, and any executive that doesn't order it probably needs to be fired.
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The Force shall free me.
I think Wildstar is going to have a strong showing. I don't mind the sub (in fact, I approve of it) but I'm a raider who won't be participating in 40-person content. I'd be far more interested in 10-person but I really just don't enjoy being stuck with 20 or 40 people trying to get through a tough dungeon. Give me the same difficulty with a group of people I could actually get to know and it's a different story. Carbine will need to put out a lot of non-20/40 content to keep me playing after I cap level though.
I don't think ESO is going to be in any shape to keep people playing if they persist on an April launch timeframe. And as everyone has noted, EQN won't be out in 2014 so it would be best put on a 2015 list.
1- I agree, Wildstar is trying hard to bring back the old school mechanics, which is good, but unfortunately it won't be enough.
The world is not charming, I just can't get into it, and the leveling experience is painfully boring
I think Wildstar will be punished twice.
By Old School players for its irritating leveling experience which might not even get to the end game they are supposed to play, and by the casual that after the pleasant leveling experience find themselves stuck with an endgame they hate.
2- ESO will be a PvP game, it's clear already. So PvE players will quit pretty soon, as soon as they finish their storyline.
So for ESO everything lies on how good the PvP is going to be, but at the moment no one knows how PvP plays in ESO, so we will have to wait and see.
3- EQNext............... we know nothing really.
But looking at the last 5 games they made, it doesn't look too good for EQNext, but I am willing to give SoE the benefit of the doubt for now
With all the questions regarding the sub MMOs coming out next year. As the ones mentioned above I really suspect that the upcoming Free To Play ones will make a big splash. Hopefully the competition for subscribers in the MMOS mentioned above will drive the quality of the Free to Play ones up. I am optimistic about Blade N Soul, ArcheAge Online. and Gloria Victus. They look great.
I think 2014 will be as good a year for Sub MMOs as it will Free to play
"I have a confession to make: I’ve seen a number of gamers assert their doubts over ESO due to feeling that the game is essentially Firor and Co. trying to create DAOC 2 with an Elder Scrolls skin. Yeah? Well…DO WANT! Honestly, no matter what Zenimax does, ESO isn’t going to be a better Elder Scrolls than games in the single player series. Compromises have to be made for an MMO."
Welcome to everything that is wrong with this genre that has been stagnant, and will remain so.
How bad are things that a gamer asks for a famous IP to be used just so a sequel will actually be made of another game......a game that would not have been made otherwise because few others gave a crap.
As for your compromises have to be made comment, only by piss poor game designers which is exactly what they are, which is why they haven't been able to make anything other than DaoC style games, even with the failed Warhammer Online. You only need to make these kinds of changes when you don't know what you are doing.
"People who tell you youre awesome are useless. No, dangerous.
They are worse than useless because you want to believe them. They will defend you against critiques that are valid. They will seduce you into believing you are done learning, or into thinking that your work is better than it actually is." ~Raph Koster
http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/10/14/on-getting-criticism/
Whats funny is that shortly after all the hype for EQNL, Trion announced that they would have a new pixel builder MMO that looks like it is going to be very close to what EQNL is described.....As for the other MMOs, meh...I expect more of the same that we've seen since 2004 and not much to get excited over.
After a dismal 2013 let's hope something decent will be released in 2014.
WILDSTAR: Holds zero interest to me, I don't mind a cartoon shader but the goofy animation style and character rigging is a mjor turnoff. Gameplay looks boring, the pvp looks silly. Sure I haven't tried it firsthand but I honestly don't want to.
ESO: At first I had very little interest in the game, however I'm starting to think it may hold some value. I've never liked the combat animations in Elder Scrolls titles, always felt lacking in substance. Preferred DaggerFall to Oblivion and Skyrim (which always needed heavy modding to feel substantial) but the IP holds much value. What I'm hoping is that the three faction pvp will rival Guild Wars 2 WvW (since I only play GW2 for it) although the released PVP footage seems to be a long way off from being good. With that said I'll give ESO the benefit of the doubt until I can try the beta or we see more media closer to release.
EQN: At first I thought it was silly, then I watched more footage, did some reading, thought about the concepts they've presented and now I'm really looking forward to it. Again I'm hoping they'll have at least a decent form of PVP but the PVE sure does look enticing. Holding fingers that 2014 will be the release!
WORLD OF DARKNESS: Come on CCP, I still feel EVE is one of, if not, the best MMO to date. Please give us some more info in 2014, we're sitting here with bated breath!
That is a naive post. Destiny and The Division are console only games, they will self destruct as the console crowd, as usual, abandons them. Not even worth talking about when it comes to MMO's. The people who play MMO's for the most part will not play them on consoles too, the controller is too constrictive.
What is the most important thing when playing a MMO? It would seem to be the avatar you play and it's development. Obviously I can't say that for everyone, but I am fairly confident that the vast majority would support that viewpoint. My objection to calling this game a sandbox is that EQN severly restricts this with their rigid class structure design. Your avatar is pretty much designed for you in EQN, you have to follow their path and wear class specific clothing. You should never find such a major restriction in any game that considers itself a sandbox. The rest of the game play becomes superfluous when you have no freedom with avatar design. Sure the game has lots of sandbox elements, but it fails when it comes to the primary one, avatar development
I'd say you may be spot on.
I derive my strength from passion. Do you feel that? That is what seperates you and I, Jedi!
I think my thrree opinions are shared by many.
WS...looks to kiddie style,cartoon graphics are not for me.
TESO i am totally on the fence but RVR or anything pvp will never be a factor in playing it.I want a solid pve experience but really i am more about the combat and class structure than anything else.
EQNext ..the biggest blemish in gaming has to be SOE and that alone will ruin it's chances for success.I realize MANY accept the nickle and diming cash shops and Founders club RMT ideas but many do not and i am one of those.
If SOE was not so damn greedy and just accepted a 15 dollar sub fee,they would have me on board no doubt what so ever,i would quit watching other games and look forward to buying and playing.SOE is to blame for me looking the other way.Oh i did not even mention SWG and recently MTGT shutting down,SOE just has a way of making people mad.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The one game I expect most from in 2014 is called The Repopulation (totally ridiculous name, but it seems to have elements that could be really interesting.
TESO does have a fair pvp, but lack some structure to it, it is chaos first, fun after.
Wildstar is losing out because of the graphics style (look at the comments here, 1 guy out of 50 posts? Fail...
Maybe Wildstar will appeal to the same people that play KittyKat....
EQN - very strategical not to put enough info out yet. Lets wait to see how TESO and Wildstar does and build the info on that.
People might still like themeparks, but to also get the sandbox people in, the future will probably offer a mix of the two (after some more full themepark attempts...)
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!