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Innovation, is it really what MMO gamers are looking for?
MMO.Maverick
Member CommonPosts: 7,619
I read a lot of MMO gamers clamoring for innovation and something different in MMORPG games, and making bold statements that 'we all want something new' and truly different. But is that really true?
There's no doubt that MMO gamers have become jaded after years of playing MMO's, and often the same sort of MMO's.
However, if the majority of people preferred innovation and creativity, they would have given other MMO's that are different a far better and longer shot, games like Tabula Rasa, like Ryzom, Darkfall, Vanguard, Fallen Earth, Champions Online and Chronicles of Spellborn, instead of hanging around in WoW and WoW themepark-style MMO's doing the same things over and over again for years.
This isn't what happened though: reality has proven the statement that 'we all want something new and different' to be wrong.
People aren't that much interested in innovation, they find accessibiity, polish and an abundance of content far more important.
The latest example is FFXIV, FFXIV is doing a lot of things different from what is common in MMO's, and people hate it for it.
So innovation is clearly not the deciding factor, people might like some change and innovation, but only if it falls within their comfort zone: accessibility (easy to get into and to pick up playing), polish in gameplay and lots of entertaining content is far more important to the majority of MMO gamers.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
What I've really looking for is a return to, and improvement on, the original core game mechanics that existed in MMOs 10 years ago, that have been left at the wayside by the vast majority of modern MMOs.
Such as Player housing, player vendors, a indepth crafting system, an indepth resource and market system, vast game world. The only true innovation I'd like to see that hasn't been done yet by a AAA MMO, is a truly dyamic game world which players have an impact on.
Everything lately has bee the same old quest hoop treadmill to max level, and then item grind... boring.
Maybe we are using the term "innovation" instead of the phrase "things done better".
F2P/P2P excellent thread.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/282517/F2P-An-Engineers-perspective.html
This is also what I'm looking for, which to me, all adds up to freedom. Freedom to affect the game world, freedom to do what I want with my character, how I want to do it, and to progress in the ways that I choose, rather than in a linear quest line.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Darkfall is far from dead, furthermore it's more the fact that it is a ffa full loot pvp game that put's of many mainstream gamers.
Aside from that, yes the vast majority simply want more polish and more shiny items.... doesn't mean that's for the best though. I would also question whether it's the older, 'jaded' mmo gamers who want more of the same crap, when in fact it's the massive influx of casual gamers that looks within their comfort zone.
Oversimplifying it: older gamers want innovation, newer gamers want WoW clones.
IB4 shitstorm.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
No, people are just looking for a game that fits their preferred image of what an MMO should be.
Sometimes that is a dream image and nothing can meet it, sometimes it's a long dead game that is looked back to with rose-tinted glasses, other times it's a game that is like some experience in single players and so on...
'Innovative' is a label for those gamers to specify something they like.
Real innovation only comes in small steps and is a reaction to present things more efficiently in a game.
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
Yes we want innovation. We also want an MMO that has had just a little bit of care taken to release a quality product. It doesn't matter how many things a company is trying to do differently of they release a rushed piece of crap. 5-10 years ago you could release a game with some issues, and fix them later. The players aren't as forgiving now. Take the time to release a quality product, decide which crowd you are targetting as your audience, and focus on this target audience and not the entire genre of players. You will have successful game with this. No one is going to replicate what WoW did, and if a player is looking for a WoW style game then they will probably be playing WoW. They aren't going to leave WoW for some half done clone. The sooner the game companies realize this the sooner we start getting some innovation in the genre.
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"Innovation, is it really what MMO gamers are looking for? "
No. They are looking for being comfortable by having mostly systems that they understand and have used in each game.
I would write more but I think your blue-green text is about to give me a seizure
You guys really need to check out Guild Wars 2 then. You'll nerdgasm.
Oderint, dum metuant.
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Even if there was innovation, I'm sure we could find something wrong with it. We really love to bitch and complain around here.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
EVE is perhaps the most innovative of them all and that's doing well. The most hyped game on this site GW2 is also one of the most innovative of the forthcoming AAA releases.
"Come and have a look at what you could have won."
This is it for me, i couldnt say it better. I dont care if game have something that has never been done before. New things doesn't mean better things or more fun things.
Innovation comes in a distant second to 'fun' for me. *shrug*
A vocal minority demands innovation, while the masses simply want something that's not identical to the existing products (and which is superior in some ways).
As I pointed out in the previous "innovation" thread, nobody gave Da Vinci crap because his Mona Lisa was a picture of a woman -- at that point millions of picture of women had already been made (so it wasn't innovative,) but it was the details of how he drew the picture which caused the painting to be successful entertainment.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
That's a very good point, I think you're not far off with that separation, because in a number of things you see a difference of market behaviour after 2005, when the large mass of MMO gamers new into MMO gaming hit the field.
After all, the only point of reference for the MMO gamers who entered the MMO market with WoW, is WoW.
I think it's better to say:
older gamers want innovation and old school-style gameplay, newer gamers want WoW clones.
I think that if a MMO company can bring back the feel of those older MMO games, with the possibility of exploration, the sense of challenge and the freedom and versatility in non-combat jobs and professions, but with up-to-date graphics and the best of the newer MMO gameplay features, that they could have a potential hit success.
So far, Rift seems to be the MMO coming closest to that 'old school' feel.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
This guy has hit the nail on the head. My thoughts exactly.
I'm interested in checking GW2 out, even though I didn't like GW at all. But it seems like GW2 is still a ways off, so meanwhile, I'm off the beaten WoW track, hunting for the closest thing to what Ceridith described that I can find.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein