I always find it funny how people cite WoW as the MMO icon to behold.
For popularity/population, it is. There's no denying it even if you hated the game.
Also, there was just something about the environments in WoW that made them highly memorable compared to other MMOs of the time. 2 years after I had last played WoW and had been actively paying other MMOs in the meanwhile, I would find memories of a location in WoW popping up randomly.
I want to help design and develop a PvE-focused, solo-friendly, sandpark MMO which combines crafting, monster hunting, and story. So PM me if you are starting one.
I think so - but I think it would be a blindside type deal. I think it would have to incorporate what made the prior mmorpgs popular without listening to the loudest voices screaming for whatever - focus on the journey to cap, focus on choices for character development, focus on rock solid, adult, complex rpg systems, and focus on multiple things to do while leveling and at cap.
I think games now focus on the loudest, biggest voices to make a certain type of slick game. The problem with these games is they seem to be made to watch, not play. They just need to ignore the noise and reproduce what worked ridiculously well in the past. Why did EQ draw a bigger audience than UO, and why did WoW draw the biggest audience of all? When did this change, specifically the demographics.
I know I left WoW shortly after cataclysm - it just stopped being fun for me and my kind. You can't gut what we love and expect us to stay. You can't expect my kind to play fortnight because a bunch of kids play it on videos that a bunch of other kids watch. You can't just throw an rpg tag on games like Anthem and Division and expect people who want mmorpgs to jump on board.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Everyone is now making battle royale clones... there you have the MMO evolution. I heard a rumor that WoW is trying to add a battle royale mode. So even WoW is feeding on scraps now.
Everyone is now making battle royale clones... there you have the MMO evolution. I heard a rumor that WoW is trying to add a battle royale mode. So even WoW is feeding on scraps now.
hoping the quicker they oversaturated the market with BRs, the quicker this bs trend will end.
Wow is the reason why the genre stagnated. No one would throw money to compete with that juggernaut, and the ones that did were woefully unprepared. You can check my accounts creation date to see that I'm an old school MMO gamer. What we need are passion projects, rather than one MMO to rule them all.
MMO's used to be about community. People made a living (in game) selling buffs that would MARGINALLY increase your mana regeneration in Everquest. People, guilds, became friends over the chat box in the long downtimes while raiding cities (I was in a guild that raided the giants in Velious for faction with the dwarves), not dungeons. Choices made in creation would matter for your entire character's life. I played a troll Shadow Knight follower of Cazic Thule. That decision defined my entire life in game. I could never enter "good" cities no matter what I did for faction.
The first time I played WoW and bandaged my warrior, I knew that the glue that holds communities together was gone. A few months after release, the guild started putting class restrictions on who could join based on which classes still needed to raid for their "end game" gear. It was fine initially, as I was one of the first weaponsmiths on Arthas that could craft the Arcanite Reaper, but as soon as the next expansion came along, everything I spent hours achieving, and the innerworkings of transmuters I had established business relationships with were gone after the first quest rewards gave everyone an upgrade.
That's when I finally quit WoW. I've been looking for the right niche game ever since, but nothing short of a few free to play titles here and there scratched the itch for me. I guess growing up in the 90's gave me a fondness for chatrooms and the precursor to MMO's, Mudd's. The human connection just isn't there like it once was. In everyone's attempts to clone WoW, no one thought about what made people play Everquest together for so long. It certainly wasn't the convenience of being able to solo the entire game.
Back to what? The genre is likely at its greatest height right now...
really? weird because I see people posting all the time looking for a good MMO to play and there are none. ESO is as close as you can get and it's very niche
Back to what? The genre is likely at its greatest height right now...
It really depends on what you're measuring for that height
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse. - FARGIN_WAR
One big MMO is what brought MMO's in to the spotlight and One big MMO would bring them back. It would follow with a bunch of clones, there would be a revival though.
If we saw a Game of Thrones MMO with a green seer system for all main characters from the TV show, a huge and dense world from the maps, a season system, dragons, castles and brothels. Armies, Assassins and barbarians. That's one example of something that would turn a lot of gaming heads. It would have a shelf just like World of Warcraft but it would breathe life, for sure.
short answer no. not in the format you are thinking. its over for that era. society has changed. so bring it back to what? mainstream culture? not happening. It can be niche though. Sort of like how cRPGs had a comeback in recent years. MMORPGs as you know them in the old format.. that's gone forever.
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Do you think one big hit would help bring the genre back? Lets say like 70% of what WOW was which is still insanely huge. Or is it a cycle thing and need the BR games to run its course and die down. Seems there are really no AAA designing MMOs anymore or even being talked about. Also how much of an impact did the free to play MMO as a "standard" hurt it? If it did at all.
So, you've never heard of Pantheon, Chronicles of Elyria, Wildstar, Dual Universe, Crowfall, Identity, Ashes of Creation, Camelot Unchained, New World ect ect?
Comments
I think games now focus on the loudest, biggest voices to make a certain type of slick game. The problem with these games is they seem to be made to watch, not play. They just need to ignore the noise and reproduce what worked ridiculously well in the past. Why did EQ draw a bigger audience than UO, and why did WoW draw the biggest audience of all? When did this change, specifically the demographics.
I know I left WoW shortly after cataclysm - it just stopped being fun for me and my kind. You can't gut what we love and expect us to stay. You can't expect my kind to play fortnight because a bunch of kids play it on videos that a bunch of other kids watch. You can't just throw an rpg tag on games like Anthem and Division and expect people who want mmorpgs to jump on board.
You stay sassy!
A big budget Game of Thrones one could have done it too.. I'm surprised no one has thrown a crap ton of money towards making a GoT MMO.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Like 2009 WoW big...
That's when I finally quit WoW. I've been looking for the right niche game ever since, but nothing short of a few free to play titles here and there scratched the itch for me. I guess growing up in the 90's gave me a fondness for chatrooms and the precursor to MMO's, Mudd's. The human connection just isn't there like it once was. In everyone's attempts to clone WoW, no one thought about what made people play Everquest together for so long. It certainly wasn't the convenience of being able to solo the entire game.
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
"My Fantasy is having two men at once...
One Cooking and One Cleaning!"
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oh sorry...that's wine...wine does that..."