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Can the Game Industry Support Another Big MMO? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Can the Game Industry Support Another Big MMO? - Garrett Fuller at MMORPG.com
For anyone who follows games and the industry, you know there is a bit of a vacuum going on right now. In the early part of the 2000s, Xbox, Playstation, Mobile and even PC gaming experienced the biggest rise in user base ever. Console titles sold millions, MMOs took over the PC market, and money came in from all sides to build bigger and better games. Here we are coming up on 2017 and this decade has seen a drop off.
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One big MMO that is not more of the same. I think it's just that, the industry became saturated by countless MMO's that are almost re-skins of the others before them... At least I myself am frustrated at that, wanting to play an MMO that simply does no exist.
It's sad to see the small Indies trying to pull off ambitious and ideas that people REALLY want to happen... while the proper publishers with the capacity to do it just do more of the same. Until that changes it continues on this... "meh".
It isn't even designed to be a MMO; the planned PU (Persistent Universe) both is and isn't, depending on what time period you look at. From the Kickstarter:
"Is Star Citizen an MMO?
No! Star Citizen will take the best of all possible worlds, ranging from a permanent, persistent world similar to those found in MMOs to an offline, single player campaign like those found in the Wing Commander series. The game will include the option for private servers, like Freelancer, and will offer plenty of opportunities for players who are interested in modding the content. Unlike many games, none of these aspects is an afterthought: they all combine to form the core of the Star Citizen experience."
So... it's supposed to have all the good aspects of a MMO and none of the bad, include player-modding and private servers but not as an afterthought, as a part of the core game.
Four years later and... what is there?
Just something to consider before vaunting SC as "Another Big MMO" the game industry may "Support".
I know this seems like I'm being critical but... get back to me when they have more than a couple dozen players in one or two instances that might be called a pre-alpha.
"The simple is the seal of the true and beauty is the splendor of truth" -Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Authored 139 missions in Vendetta Online and 6 tracks in Distance
So its highly unlikely anything will come along that has the depth and content necessary to RETAIN a large group of players that would make a game truly epic.
Thats why when they launch every game is fun, because there are actually people playing them. Its not a coincidence that the 'fun' factor always drops when the population drops as well.
While people claim MMOs are just solo games with other people around theyre wrong. While you shouldnt force group people you should have group content akin to GW2 and Rift where you show up and can auto group to achieve a goal.
same old/same old isn't going to cut it.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Some even preach the "death" of the MMO genre but the truth is the interest is there, the games aren't. More of the same will not work out, it's about time to push things forward and deliver new experiences.
I personally am not a game hopper and do not play in short play sessions. The reason we have so many crappy games is because so many people have shorter attention spans and do hop games.
What if they don't have the capacity to do these things anymore? What if the programmers they hire lack the experience and imagination to craft these worlds now?
One of the reasons that the current MMO selection is so awful is that the people who knew what they were doing have left the business and not passed their knowledge on. And there is always the possibility that the kinds of new recruits that get hired into the bigger companies lack some key features, such as imagination and cultural background, to even begin to put together something truly interesting.
Many of the younger people who came through the educational system are not "acculturated", especially those coming from STEM programs. Many were not readers as children Most did not have parents and grandparents who watched reruns with them and told them about the past (hence the creation of the concept of "references" to explain things in pop culture now). There is a huge blank spot where cultural memory should reside.
One of the things you will notice about the older games is the high level of literacy in the story writers and other people who were responsible for what is called "content" these days. When EQ fired its lead writer, something went missing from the game. Asheron's Call had a diverse staff with varied backgrounds and this literacy really showed in the lore and the kind of gameplay that existed in the world.
The people from that generation who picked up programming, even if they majored in CS at college, were far more culturally aware than the people making games today. Having a broad background in reading, classics, and even pop culture coupled with an imaginative childhood is a requirement for making a compelling game.
Growing up in a different era where memories weren't so short had a huge impact on the feeling of the virtual worlds they created. You can't just have a login screen and call something an MMO. There has to be more than that, and that something is what is missing today. It isn't just the size of the company that is to blame for the bland, uninspired loot box games of today. These corporations select for a particular type of individual, and often that process weeds out the oddballs, the fashion victims, the surly intellects who have no patience for bs, and all the other characters who make life interesting.
The doldrums of creativity that games are going through now are the inevitable result of money sloshing around looking for a return. In a better economy that money would be invested and productive. These days capital is chasing pie-in-the-sky nonsense like the Dot Com 2.0 disaster that is about to happen again. That's why we have loot box simulators instead of real games, and that's why the only good games are going to come from smaller companies for the forseeable future.
1) Way too many good games out there: The fragmentation of the user base as some are loyal and some trying out the many problems has created a fluctuating transient community in each game. You've seen great/good games do poorly b/c people's attention were yanked away by something new or people just haven't had the time to try new products.
2) Rise of single player & MOBA-type games may be taking away from MMO crowd, especially since reason #1 has made MMO's seem like single player games w/ social options. Previous poster who said ESO I would disagree if he plays the PVP portion (maybe he never had good guilds).
3) Economic. I think the easy cash and high incomes of the early 2000's have been draining steadily away from the middle class. It could be and this is just a theory of mine, that financial support for better games could be lacking because people have less disposable income than previously.
Keep shoveling the same shit, and games will continue to fail. (People do not want to play ANOTHER not-as-good-as-WoW clone or Asian grinder #437.)
It is not a complicated concept.
1. Time: there are more games to play nowadays from mobile games to Moba's to single player experiences. In addition to social media and other kinds of entertainment, there is no time left to invest in MMORPG's.
2. The ''modern'' themepark formula doesn't work anylonger: why play MMORPG's when most of them are solo-play centric anyhow? you can get a higher quality RPG experience by playing single-player RPG's like The witcher 3 and Skyrim. Sure, the world feels more alive when you see real people running around but since current MMO's require little to no interaction between players, that ''community'' feeling that used to exist in MMPRG's is vanishing. So instead of playing a single MMORPG and investing alot of time there. Instead you can play a higher quality single-player RPG that requires less time and gives you more freedom as far as how much you want to play it. On the side you can play one of the many massivly popular multiplayer titles like Overwatch and League of legends.
I agree with the last paragraph, not so much about indie companies though. I don' think MMOs work well as niche games. They don't get the population critical mass you need to keep people playing.
I agree! And it think it's because the people with the money don't know the difference between a polished game and one that's lacking.
When you look at any of the recent MMORPGs they all look good, and sound good, it's not until you play them for a while that you realize there isn't much to them. I don't think the boards of AAA studios get that. When they don't make that mega money up front they panic and force the development in directions that don't improve the game, but try to improve the cash flow, which usually doesn't help the problem but exacerbates it.
I would assert sir, that you have it backwards. We have so many crappy games that can't keep peoples attention long enough. I'd say there is more evidence to support that view of the problem.
I personally think the market is ripe for a next gen expensive MMORPG, the Game of Thrones of the genre.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
As for the people saying short attention span, Its not that. The world has changed immensly from when i grew up (39 now). I barely had any entertainment at my finger tips. Now people have it everywhere and can have more friends to do stuff with more than ever due to social media. Not gonna find many people wanting to play video games every single moment they are free like they use to. Even in the last 10 years its changed a ton.
i mean , i don't want to see another MMO with same lies , same tricks , same traps . They rather focus on making good multiplayer online game or singleplayer game instead waste money making MMO (which they don't even know how to make).
After all those years i had lost my faith . If there are new MMO release , my first though is " another same same ?"
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
But I would like a shiny new MMORPG with tab targeting and I do have hours a day to play one.
I guess I will just settle myself down in my comfy niche, after cleaning the filters on the air conditioner, after all summer is nearly here.