Can MMO's get beyond World of Warcraft?

[Doug]

Also, the problem with most MMO's is they try and copy WoW too much - the obvious problem, even stated by a member of Blizzard themselves [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/96420-Blizzard-Stop-Trying-to-Copy-WoW], is that people don't want to start over again in a new world if their just going to do the same things as they did in WoW.

 

[ItsAPaul]

Rofl. I am reminded of the old adage: "One man's trash is another man's treasure." Been playing WoW since closed Beta. I definitely have gotten my money's worth out of it. I would not be interested in 'moving on from WoW' until it stops being fun.

You are completely entitled to find WoW (and its design principles) outdated and stale. I have bad news for you, however: more than 12 million people disagree with you, and I think that almost every game company in existence is going to give more weight to those 12 million opinions as opposed to your lone opinion... so, unless you make your own game and it's wildly popular, you're going to find a lot of WoW-influenced concepts in RPGs and MMOs for quite a while. It works, after all.

Apparently its close to double that 12 million these days, at least according to a recent interview. Compared to every other mmo, that's an insane subscriber base, so of course it's going to be copied.

 

[DarkSaber]

Everything I play lately even non mmo's have design borrowed from World of Warcraft! The color coded loot and the little exclamation point above quest givers is making me ill.

Colour coded loot and quest markers have been around since at least Diablo.

 

[dracomanm]

Well, there is one MMORPG still going strong since BEFORE WoW and will continue to do so for years to come: RuneScape.
Low monthly fees, quests that aren't "Kill X of Y for body part Z" and have actual engaging storylines, a great sense of humor and actual dialog with the NPC's.

True, it's infamous for having an awful player base, but on the member (pay to play) servers, it's really not that bad. It has it's fair share of grind, but what MMORPG doesn't these days.

As for graphics, they're very low compared to the visuals of other MMORPG's, but for a JAVA game, it's ff-ing great.

I might even go as far as to say that, in the case he can get himself past a bit of time to level his skills, Yahtzee will more likely enjoy the quests and dialog in this game, though Duke Nukem Forever will be released before he'd try it...

 

[gibboss28]

does that answer you question?

This image makes me happy and sad at the same time...happy to see Dungeon Keeper ain't dead..but sad to see it being made in to an MMO.

 

[josemlopes]

APB changes a lot of crap from other MMO's

There are some videos showing gameplay, like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmfd_jAljEQ&feature=related

Also look this too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHdyzf8WSTc

 

[DMonkey]

WOW is a reliable old horse, though, which is why I think it still dominates, why trade in for a younger mare when the old girl can still pull the cart? If people were not still having fun, people wouldn't play it, and other developers wouldn't want to get in on their action by offering something similar...

But yeah, when most games don't usually get fun until max level, and you got a lot of smacking to do to get there, killing X amount of these, then X amount of those, then beat that orcs face in until he drops some item an NPC wanted, it gets old real quick...

Does anybody else think the MMO genre is stale and it's true potential is not realized?

Absolutely. I've had this idea for quite some time about a zombiepocalypse (hold your groans) MMO. Survivors would be forced to band together and create makeshift homes/defenses to repel the zombies. Would never REALLY have an endgame so far as I've figured, but damned if it wouldn't be intimidating to spend your daylight hours stocking up your house so you can defend against the onslaught at night. And, if you lose your house? God help you!

This, I like this, I would play the shit out of this...

 

[RanD00M]

Short answer:NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.

I think you can guess the long answer.

 

[Ganthrinor]

The MMO works on a formula. This formula is tried and true and deviations from this formula are potentially hazardous. However, he formula itself is a creative dead-end.

What's the formula, you ask? Why, "Fun for the whole family" or as I like to call it, "Pandering to the lowest common denominator".

 

[Jupsto]

http://www.darkfallonline.com/index.html

/thread.



* Role-playing, strategy, and shooter action in a MMOG
* The largest handcrafted online world of its kind.
* Over 10 thousand concurrent players per game world.
* The largest MMORPG battles ever - involving thousands.
* Ultimate PvP action, the #1 choice of top players and clans.
* Seamless, zoneless, non-instanced world. No invisible walls.
* No safe zones. Full loot. PvP everywhere with accountability.
* No more leveling. Improve the skills you use.
* Fight on mounts, ships, man cannons and vehicles.
* Siege and conquer cities, build and protect your own.
* Craft any item in the world and put your name on it.

free expansion about to go live improving the game and focusing on ships and sea combat. this game makes all other mmo's look like pong in terms of gameplay.

 

[theultimateend]

You're kidding right?

World of WarCraft was a Mix of Everquest and Ultima Online (the best MMO ever) with a few things thrown in from DAoC and like 3-5 New Ideas, other than that they just polished it to a shine like they do with most of their games ...

Anyway Bioware is bound to to bring a bit of fresh wind into the Genre with their Star Wars MMO, read up on it.

I'll believe it when I play it.

Everytime someone brings "fresh" it ends up just being a fresh sticker on a year old bag of chips.

 

[Raykuza]

Isn't Final Fantasy XIV getting rid of traditional levels and doing the equipment thing? That actually reminds me of FFXI's job system in a way.

 

[tofulove]

don't forget, blizzard is working on a brand new mmo. and as for wow longevity, i don't think it has any danger being kicked off its mountain of dead mmos it has made for it self. only threat it has in the new one blizz is making, as we know from everquest. when they made number 2 it was around the same time wow came out, alot of people tried wow instead of getting number 2. and wow bin growing stronger since, when the new blizz mmo comes out it will be the only chance imo that a new mmo will be givin a chance to steel its thunder.