What would it take to revolutionize the MMO genre?

[Irridium]

Simple, MMO's need to realize that you don't need to, and shouldn't, copy World of Warcraft. Bring out MMOFPS's, MMORTS's, MMORPG's that aren't "WoW + gimmick." You know, ones that get out of the rut.

Guild Wars 2 made a good effort, and changed many standard MMO systems for the better. Now another game needs to take it all to the next level.

 

[CpT_x_Killsteal]

Change in genre.

MMORTS, anyone? I've always imagined the idea of a giant MMORTS at some point, seeing how the FPS portion is more than filled up. This also requires building the game so that one can go it alone if they so wish.

You may like to search up "End of Nations". Don't know if they're in Alpha still or onto beta right now though. If you want, I can check up on it. If my pass still works I'll play it a bit, and if I don't like it I'll give my account to you if you wanna try it out.

 

[2xDouble]

What will it take? Penny Arcade. Behold!

 

[TIMESWORDSMAN]

A Molotov Cocktail and a large axe. The only effective revolution in that industry would be french.
I can't see it changing drastically in any way without restarting with whole new blueprints.

 

[Maxtro]

Virtual reality.

For a couple of extreme examples watch .hack// and Sword Art Online.

Without having to go the whole mind dumping thing, having a game be compatible with VR goggles would change everything. I'd expect a bunch of first person MMO's to come out.

Of course something like Skyrim in VR would be amazing.

 

[Seventh Actuality]

Another game that is actually almost as good as WoW, on any level.

 

[Pero]

Action combat... or something like they did in Tera... anything that involves skill (yeah I know being a good mmo player still depends on your 'skill' but this way it would depend more). Maybe everything to be a skillshot?

I personnely really think this is what it needs but a more western style than terra.

Yup I would like more western style to it too!

 

[kabooz18]

hmm revolutionise?
it's been done a few times already
Vindictus, EvE online, Demon's Souls

basically what you need to revolutionise it would be good gameplay, good animations, an environment that is comfortable and that's about it

what most MMOs do wrong is they use relatively detached gamefeeling in the design

an action that you do thousands of times be better well animated otherwise it will feel constrained after a while or even repetative and boring


but other forms of greatly improving on MMOs would be differentiating in the goal of the endgame
one could argue Minecraft is an MMO for example.

or the way they are played together, Dark Souls has found a great way to play together and weave that and the reason why into the story.

so not much is needed but it's costly so it means taking a higher risk for publisher and developer.

MMOs today have little variation on the design of the world we play in, it would be fairly easy to make a MMO that doesn't have to compete with most other MMOs

 

[Vegosiux]

It's odd how some people would want to turn "MMO" into "A game that's tailored precisely to my taste, an in which every player that's not me might as well be an NPC cause I want to be the only hero."

When I feel that way, guess what? I load up a single player game. I never thought I'd be saying this but if you can't stand other people experiencing the same content after you've beaten it, maybe the MMO genre is not for you.

 

[Mstroker]

Open world, engaging game play, story, life like NPC's, etc etc... They basically need to actually just focus on putting in the details that so many people have gotten lazy and tried to work their way around for so long.

 

[Phuctifyno]

SNOW CRASH!



But seriously, a revolution would probably require some boring technology leap, like millions of players on one shared map... or nude avatars.

[post-script edit] Or hey, know what'd be sweet? A game that let you level up to such ridiculous levels that, once you reach the top, you get your own dungeon and become a boss and have a guild come into your dungeon and try and take you down, and when they take you down, they get all your loot and knock you back to level 1 (or maybe 10 or something, to be kind).

 

[josemlopes]

Do you know that special attention to small details that more focused single player games get? That is what is missing from my point of view. What is up with the big ass rooms and the ultra fast speed of the characters (to navigate said big ass rooms quickly)? I know that its made to have multiple people in there at the same time but still...

Just look at this, what the fuck is wrong with the massive amount of text on-screen? If all the text was out there seems to be so much empty space in that room

Spoiler

Spoiler

://files.enjin.com/148559/module_gallery/full/ccsw_

 

[skywolfblue]

"Revolutionize the genre" is often "Dethrone WoW" in a lot of people's minds. They want WoW to die and a new "WoW 2.0" to rise in it's place.

That's the wrong approach to take. It's extremely hard to make a game that is better then WoW, we have tons of broken, battered, and flawed MMOs that prove that point. The MMOs that could live off of small subscriber numbers are the ones that are still alive (Rift, EVE).

It would take a practically perfect MMO to beat WoW. It's less a matter of fancy mechanics or graphics, and more about degree of polish, lack of bugs, social connections, and the world being a fun place to explore and play in.

 

[EmperorSubcutaneous]

It's not possible. All you can do is make games that appeal to different types of people, as demonstrated by everyone in this thread.

Some people like action combat, some people like hotbar combat. Some people like the gear grind, some people don't. Some people like high fantasy, some people like modern fantasy, or science fantasy, or science fiction...etc.

It's the way people keep expecting there to be one MMO to rule them all that's the problem.

(Edit: lol, "hotbat.")

 

[Friendly Lich]

Player housing seems to be a really popular concept people want more of.

 

[CommanderL]

Change in genre.

MMORTS, anyone? I've always imagined the idea of a giant MMORTS at some point, seeing how the FPS portion is more than filled up. This also requires building the game so that one can go it alone if they so wish.

My idea for an mmo rts would be that you start on a planet for with a bunch of other players you can either fight with them or allie with them while you work up the space stage where every other player will be you could create or join massive alliances you could make huge coporatians mining resourses for tons of credits or selling tech or even build ships for over people You could even leak other players homeworld location it would be about war and minipulation plus you dont even need to join with people If you set up a good enough empire you could go alone you just have to be carefull to not over extend your reach you would also have to be carefull with your research due to the fact there will be multiple weapon types and ship types and engine types it wouldnt be fessible to research them all you pick whats best for you and design your fleet and your research around it thats where close alliance would be good as you could fill in the caps of each other i.e One has the best Factories and prouductions another has the best scientists another has the best milltary another has the best minning i.e

 

[Yellowfish]

I say, the death of WoW may give the genre a much needed shaking. If WoW shuts down, there will suddenly be some ten million MMO addicts looking for a new timesink. Right now all other MMOs out there are basically sucking on WoW's leftovers. Remove WoW, and money will flow towards smaller developers, giving them the ability to make their games even better, forcing them to compete with each other (because right now the MMO market is monipolised by Blizzard, and nobody is really competing with anyone), innovate, try different and truly original settings and gameplay mechanics.

Now, before Blizzard fanboys eat me alive, I want to say that I like WoW, I played it a lot in the past, but I still think that the industry as a whole would only benefit from it's shutdown. Monopoly is never a good thing after all. And of course I do realise that WoW isn't going to disappear anytime soon.

 

[vasiD]

... Guild Wars 2?

No, seriously, play it.

 

[DaWaffledude]

I think something like EVE online but without the focus on the economy.