Current Trends in MMO's
By MrMalice
@MrMalice (82)
United States
February 8, 2008 5:02pm CST
It's starting to dawn on me that the MMO industry is going to quickly find themselves in trouble. What's the problem you may ask? Well first of all, the territory is being dominated and secondly "innovation" is only a word used to sell copies.
World of Warcraft dominates the MMO market with is 11 million users. Because of this, other games are crafted in the same direction as WoW (especially Lord of Rings Online.) The pattern for game making kills games that might have innovation. City of Heroes thrived on its super-hero based game play until WoW changed the way end game and layout "should-be."
Yet, there is hope for our future. Pirates of the Burning Sea, which was recently release, has a promising naval combat scheme and a online economist dream. Thats all great, if you can get over the learning curve. Age of Conan, due to release in may, also promises to revolutionize the way MMO combat is handled, and add indept guild play, and player built cities.
If this happens, I will have new hope for the gerne and industry. Till then I wait.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Entiat (21)
• United States
13 Apr 08
First off, I play WoW avidly so that may affect my judgment on a number of things. I agree that WoW has taken the entire market for MMOs by incorporating ideas from numerous MMOs that came before it. I don't think that PotBS will do very well at all. It has great graphics, innovative new gameplay in a new identity but it is too much of a departure from the MMOs that everyone has become accustomed to. WoW is the current MMO giant because it takes the best parts of MMOs and puts them in an easy to use package, and since almost everyone has played WoW, they keep coming back to it because it is what they have become accustomed to. Developers keep making MMOs with innovation and changes but people will never get into them because people don't like change, especially in something they have become so used to. The only way to take down WoW is to take it, alter it in such a way that it is fundamentally the same but visually different and then sell it. You can't change the stereotype the WoW has made.
-Entiat-
@Afallingrock (289)
• United States
28 Jun 08
If you're looking for a sandbox skill based game, then you're outta luck since i dont know any good ones. But a lot of people are waiting for DarkFall online. Its been in dev for a few years and few think itl be released. Lately people are talking more and more about it, maybe its close to open beta. My suggestion is join a clan and wait. At least if you join one youll have a chance to get into the clan beta, and have fun just posting about nothing somtimes. If you're looking for a good one try here http://www.runboard.com/bthemercenarylegionofagon
@xtedaxcvg (3189)
• Philippines
13 Apr 08
Well, based on the online games I've seen so far, it's really sad that most of these games don't really offer much. Just your average "uber" graphics but mediocre to crappy gameplay.
Only one caught my attention, not because of its looks but because of its story. That game is World of Warcraft.
I really don't care if the graphics are cartoony or the game is just like everything else, I'm more interested in the story and WoW delivers it superbly.
@bronzdragon (64)
• United States
13 Feb 08
I understand your point. I'd like to add that even WoW got a lot of their ideas from other games that came before them. It's been a gradual process, where thankfully, games have generally gotten better over the years. WoW did a great job of taking what several games did well, and wrapping it up nicely in a player friendly game.
As I've been playing mmo's since 1999, I've seen the evolution. I also agre that PoTB promises to be a good game. However, I don't think it will be for a casual user, and mostly for people who enjoy naval and/or trading/warfare type games.
Each new game that has come out has claimed to "revolutionize" some form of the gaming industry. And in a small party, they are right. Because most new games have something new about them, that no other game has had.
The MMORPG industry is robust, and there's a different game for every different taste. If anything, I think the huge amount of choice given to your average gamer is a good thing, but it has made the gaming industry work harder for every subscriber.
~r~
