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We have long recognised that the more MMOs we had the more issues there were with MMO subscribers. Indeed it was one of the factors in the move to F2P populations and in turn reduced F2P populations as well. But this seems to have happened in entertainment generally. As a fan of SF and fantasy there are more TV series than I can watch, 15 years ago that was not the case. The total number of series is still booming in all genres as far as I know.
So much is being produced we cannot consume a sufficient amount to keep that good MMO or TV series going. Gaming as a whole is not quite so effected as I think the explosion of Indie is balanced by the increasing reliance of gaming houses on franchise titles.
For MMOs this has been negative all down the line. I know many think that the huge choice is a big plus, but the sacrifice in quality, styles of game play, background, quality of writing etc has been huge.
We could use a Netflix model for MMOs, but that brings us back to the idea of subscriptions. Netflix are not too bothered if one TV series does not demand huge numbers, they still keep it archived even if they don’t recommission, as a MMO could be if part of a entertainment package.
Gaming houses have offered a subscription for certain of their games before but by incorporating MMOs into packages for other kinds of entertainment we might bypass some of their issues.
One thing we can’t stop the tide which is making fewer of us play the same MMO and same games. Same for TV, we are divided by suppliers. The cohesion of talking about the same TV has radically reduced just like the communities in MMOs. But at least in gaming the likes of Steam friends is a counter to that.
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There's little special about them to retain a player so bouncing between games is common place for many.
AA, BDO, Revelation, TERA etc what is really so different between them.
Same for the many WOW spinoffs over the years...none have anything unique of real significance.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
I don't like Archeage's tab targetting and can't stand the "!"
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In the last 5 years, so many impostor MMO's that came out and failed to do anything different at all. I mean, look at the nearly identical looks of WoW and Wildstar. How many games, honestly, even tried to evolve or improve systems that were birthed nearly a decade before them? Most games still haven't even strayed from the basic "fetch-and-retrieve", "escort helpless NPC", or "kill x, deliver y" quests. You're telling me that no one, literally at all, came up with anything better than that in 10 years?
You mix the total failure to innovate or improve, and you combine it with the travesty that has become F2P games, and its not hard to see why MMORPG's are dying. Games are essentially extremely dumbed-down, pay-to-win cash farms these days. It's a big reason why I stopped writing about them, and stopped playing them, too.
Waiting for something fresh to arrive on the MMO scene...
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
I used to try to game with my friends and follow them to different games, but my interest in how long I wished to play and in what kind of content eventually made that a hollow gesture.
Although innovation is often pointed to as why MMOs have gotten stale, I don't agree. I think the MMO market is now so vast that it would be impossible to design a game that would attract a broad base in the way that WoW did.
It used to be that developers were in charge of the narrative. I'm thinking in terms of "this is the game we made and this is what you'll do in-game and that's it." Now gamers are in charge of the narrative. "Nope, not gonna PvP. Nope, not gonna tab target. Nope, not gonna play if no housing." This has made a huge difference in how games are perceived, talked about, reviewed and played.
The game industry mostly can't figure out if $100 is too little to pay or $15 too much.
Interesting choice of words (and very fitting). These days the players of MMORPGs are scattered throughout too many different games. Some of these games are not even in the MMORPG genre (MOBAs and such).
If there was a colorful variety of unique and different games which appeal to the smaller niche audiences they are getting because of the population being scattered among so many games this wouldn't be so bad.
Instead everything seems to be basically the same game with a few minor differences. Why? Because developers are all trying too hard to appeal to everyone. In doing so they make the most bland, uninspired games possible.
Once they concede to the fact that, for this reason, they will never get the number of players that rare anomalies like WoW got then maybe they might realize making games catering specifically to a smaller yet rabidly loyal niche fan base is the better option for the long term. (unless they are content with making terrible games for short term cash grabs of course)
You will create a character, level it up, mostly solo with occasional grouping thrown in. You'll do some crafting, make tons of money, spend it RNGing your gear, maybe do a bit of PVP, probably complain how P2W it is, decorate a house, do a boss raid or kill, grind new content for new gear, do it again and again ad nauseum.
Interesting you brought up EVE, its really not much like any of them.
Oh I know, AA is more sandboxy, has cool boat mechanics, Revelation has flying, BDO has its unique perks such as AFK fishing but largely you are playing the same core game, for many years actually.
No wonder people are lukewarm to the genre.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
Trouble with these forums, people take things literally and don't think things through.
It's OK, I'm used to it.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
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
I do think lack of innovation is a big issue, but I agree that even huge innovation will struggle in todays MMO market.
Not sure gamers are in charge, only that common denominators are listened too. So if their analysis says Gamers mostly like X, they put in X regardless of its impact on the nature of MMO gaming. So we get what the majority want without thought to the quality of game you end up producing.
I agree, look at how different BF, GTA and LFD are. Are the world of MMOs tied down so much by the genre that MMOs have to be so similar? Yes, I understand we can never have the degree of variety "solo" games have, but meanwhile "solo" games are showing MMOs how different multiplayer can be.
Already a real issue for MMOs and more so down the road, is MMO multiplayer experience going to be able to match what a "solo" game is doing?
after people start to create the clone of WOW with solo quest hubs and forced group instance , all the game become boring . I rarely manage to play pass 20 level at those game .
Archeage is exception since i can break between the quests for labor stuffs , but it boring fast since people keep abuse the system to the point broken the game . And the quests and instance aka main contents is as boring as other WOW clone , i don't even want to play it if it wasn't the PVP and non combat contents .