What would it take to revolutionize the MMO genre?

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Friendly Lich

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Many people are wanting one game to revolutionize or at least liberate the MMO genre. What do you think it would take for this to happen? Please elaborate.
 

Bertylicious

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Apr 10, 2012
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The most enjoyable MMO's I've played in recent memory were DC Online and the starship sections in Star Trek Online; experiences that eschewed the tired formula of pressing 1,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,1,2,1,1,1,3,1,1,2,1,1,1,click on collect loot etc...

The loot drops are always shitty though. The only way to get good loot is to go on raids and that requires *shudder* dealing with other people. An altogether detestable experience.

Basically the way to revolutionise/liberate MMOs would be to get rid of the need to play with other people.
 

The Madman

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Dec 7, 2007
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Faster widespread internet connections.

No, seriously, that's pretty much the thing holding the genre back right now. It really is that simple in many ways, slow internet is the thing keeping the entire genre back right now. When that changes and fast, stable internet is common the genre will change to reflect that with games that take advantage of it.

We're already on the verge of this sort of breakthrough. Given a few more years I expect things will change drastically.
 

ThriKreen

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May 26, 2006
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Me honestly, I'd want them to stop making the worlds so static and require grinding for mats or quests to fill the time inbetween.

If someone misses out on an event, tough noogies. But no, they have to design it with a checklist of quests and achievements and a % value for people to observe. Everyone goes through the same amount of content, if you miss it, just wait a bit for it to come back around. There's no sense of a world when you're player #1,948,423 that defeated the Big Bad.

Thinking something like Battletech 3025 (massively multiplayer, pick a faction and engage in taking over planets of the Inner Sphere). Just remembering hanging out in chat with the Draconis Combine, organizing targeted strikes and purposely attacking one faction, one planet at a time, and seeing the map change in relation to it. I hope MWO designs their meta game with that level of persistence.
 

TephlonPrice

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Dec 24, 2011
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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.
 

MrCollins

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Jun 28, 2010
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I think that a change that makes actual gameplay entertaining, that's why I think Firefall has the potential to survive in the long term and prosper, that and the unbelievably good design philosophy those guys have. I've been in the beta for a few days now and I'm very impressed, the only MMO I've played and not had music/Tv/film on in the background.
 

Thoric485

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Another 2-3 years of failing WoW-likes.

It's just, the development cycle of a MMO is so long and such a huge financial commitment, we're still seeing projects started in 2006-2007, when everyone was gobsmacked by WoW's success and wanted in on that.

I think after WAR, AoC and TOR it's becoming clear WoW is not a formula for success, but an anomaly, and it would take more than the same tired old mechanics and a new coat of paint become the Next Big Thing, or even just sustain 300k paid subs.
 

ohnoitsabear

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What we need are smaller projects that don't need 5 million subscribers to be successful. These projects could then afford to take risks, and thus we would actually see innovation in the genre. The massive budgets on current MMOs mean they need to appeal to everybody, and thus we get the same crap that we've already been playing for years.
 

Olikar

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ohnoitsabear said:
What we need are smaller projects that don't need 5 million subscribers to be successful. These projects could then afford to take risks, and thus we would actually see innovation in the genre. The massive budgets on current MMOs mean they need to appeal to everybody, and thus we get the same crap that we've already been playing for years.
This man's right, what we need is for companies to stop trying to make huge WoW clones that try to capture the mainstream audience in a deluded attempt to become as rich and famous as Blizzard has(which is never going to happen) This is bad because A) Since they want to appeal to an already existing fanbase they use already existing game mechanics(WoW's mechanics)and this allows no innovation what so ever. B) No WoW clones are ever as good as WoW and they all die rather quickly ( for example SWTOR) and this allows WoW to pretty much monopolize the MMO market except a few other MMOs that actually decided to be different E.G EVE Online.

Also does anyone else miss the days when MMOs weren't all about combat and you could be things like a trader or a bard? why can't we have more games like that with player ran economies and cities?
 

Pero

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Dec 11, 2011
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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?
 

Matt King

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one really REALLY good alternative mmo, like i mean an mmo that isn't an rpg and is really amazing and becomes really popular, like if it was a shooter or an rts or somthing because then other companies/designers whatever would be more inclined to try new types of mmo
 

Friendly Lich

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Pero said:
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 really think this is what it needs.
 

Friendly Lich

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Friendly Lich said:
Pero said:
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.
 

VoidWanderer

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ThriKreen said:
Me honestly, I'd want them to stop making the worlds so static and require grinding for mats or quests to fill the time inbetween.

If someone misses out on an event, tough noogies. But no, they have to design it with a checklist of quests and achievements and a % value for people to observe. Everyone goes through the same amount of content, if you miss it, just wait a bit for it to come back around. There's no sense of a world when you're player #1,948,423 that defeated the Big Bad.

Thinking something like Battletech 3025 (massively multiplayer, pick a faction and engage in taking over planets of the Inner Sphere). Just remembering hanging out in chat with the Draconis Combine, organizing targeted strikes and purposely attacking one faction, one planet at a time, and seeing the map change in relation to it. I hope MWO designs their meta game with that level of persistence.
Pretty much this, but phrased this way...

I don't want to play the Developer's story. I want to play MY story. If you keep telling ME that I am the ONLY ONE who can stop them, why do I keep seeing other people on the same quest.

Oh yeah, you only write one.

If I ever had the money to get an MMO developed, I would build an MMO with actually divergent story-telling. The world would have a meta-story, but the players would actually influence it. There will be the players who kill others, and that's fine. Let them. Let them conquer the world, someone else will come along and stop them. It would be in 'Generic Fantasy Land', but if your roll a Fighter, you get to choose a different storyline, and I don't mean like in ToR, where you all end up in the same place. Militia will be based around the one town they choose to defend. Mercenaries will go to the job board. The Adventuring hero will find one of the MANY potential quest chains, and can, with ehelp of other build their own village/keep.

I am sick of games say 'Your choices matter' when they mean, Path A and Path B. I want the player to decide on a course of action and follow through with it. And that can help shape the world. Each server will have differing outcomes, because people are different.

Captcha: yeah right

I know, not going to happen while the wrong round things are pinched by purse-strings
 

barbzilla

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Dec 6, 2010
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Friendly Lich said:
Many people are wanting one game to revolutionize or at least liberate the MMO genre. What do you think it would take for this to happen? Please elaborate.
I will list my thoughts on the changes needed in order of importance (one being greatest and each subsequent number being less important)

1: We need to change the general mechanics of MMOs. We have a couple of games that deviate from the normal manner of pressing your hotkeys while you wait on other skills to cool down, but they don't do so all that well. If the MMO genre can move into either a more action oriented system, or a better RPG choice system (my opinion is the latter would be the better option) it would go leaps and bounds into revolutionizing the genre.

2: This one is almost tied with number one in my opinion. Change the way you tell stories in MMOs. Half of the people who don't play MMOs don't play them because they suck at drawing you in with their stories. I've only seen one game in the genre that actually goes out of its way to truly draw you in and immerse you in the game, and that game is easily one of the best (though it fails hard in may other aspects of the game). So many of us are tired of going into the game only to be told we need to kill 10 wolves to collect their pelts. Make us feel like heroes, not do-boys(girls). We have regular jobs, don't make us continue them while we play games.

3: Find alternate ways to immerse the players. Huxley when it was originally announced told us it was going to be a massively online future war based game. As you gained rank you also gained squads under your command (based on the expectations of people continuing to join the game). You would set objectives and strategies to be carried out by your underlings, while you carried out orders from your superior. I won't say this is the perfect example, but it is a great example of building immersion. What better way to make the player invested in the game world than to allow him to be a part of it?

4: Better billing structures. We are already working on this part now, but I think it is important. I would often avoid MMOs that had monthly fees as I would feel obligated to play the game to get my money's worth out of it. Then along came guild wars. I have purchased every expansion and kept with the game here and there, because it had no monthly fees. Because of that I have spent more time playing that MMO than any other. However there is a balance to it, it has to be pay to look cool, or pay to speed up, it can not be pay to win. The moment they start giving unfair advantages to those who pay, you start hemorrhaging subscribers.

I am sure there are other aspects that would help to change the future of MMOs, but I think these are the prime suspects.
 

Assassin Xaero

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Jul 23, 2008
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I've only played/seen a few MMO, so this is just my opinion on what I've seen. First off, a lot of them seem to have the "cartoony" graphic style to them, which isn't bad, but when they are all like that it is annoying. The majority also seem to be RPG's, which I'm not crazy about, so I haven't had much interest at all in them.

Survarium looks really good, though.