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WoW clones, are we done with that?
Maurgrim
Member RarePosts: 1,325
We got ESO, we got GW2, we got BDO and alike.
So are we done with the WoW clone talk or?
So are we done with the WoW clone talk or?
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After 5 or 10 more years it will be minecraft generation
I actually kinda liked that one.
And after release they lose their subs but most likely by that point the investors make thier money back and thats why from an investors point of view it works but from a gamers point of view, you end playing a game that is just the same as other games but its a new grind with less end game hoping that they try to slowly add the content you want.
Write bad things that are done to you in sand, but write the good things that happen to you on a piece of marble
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"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
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"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 think the themepark design paradigm still has legs. People like questing through boring storylines, exploring worlds and seeing bigger numbers. We like it single player and we like it massively multiplayer. The main threat to WoW clones is from these minimally multiplayer games like Destiny 2, Anthem etc. Lets face it, hardly any MMO leverages the massively-multiplayer part, so developers can achieve everything they want with something like Anthem, rather than needing to go full MMO.
But, very specific wow clone - themepark, levels, power gaps, tab-targetting, trinity, endgame gear treadmill, dungeons and raids....maybe not.
There are certain queer times and occasions in this strange mixed affair we call life when a man takes this whole universe for a vast practical joke, though the wit thereof he but dimly discerns, and more than suspects that the joke is at nobody's expense but his own.
-- Herman Melville
WoW Clones to...
Online FPSes (COD, Planetside 2, Destiny, etc)
Blocky World Builders (Minecraft, Trove, Terreria, EQNext, etc)
MOBAs (LoL, DOTA, Paragon, Smite, etc)
Hero Shooters (Overwatch, Paladins, Battleborn, TF2, etc)
Survival (H1Z1, PUBG, Fortnite, etc)
It's just a revolving door, I have no idea what will be the next "big thing" but I don't think it will revolve back to the traditional themepark MMO, or MMOs in general.
Also, you can kind of see - sometimes the defining game of a genre comes out well ahead of the genre getting huge. TF2 is a good example - Overwatch was basically a TF2 clone, but put a lot more polish on it, and somehow that was enough to ignite a lot more "me toos". Same thing with survivals - PUBG certainly isn't the first or the best, but it's the one that made the genre blow up. You could even say the same thing about WoW - it wasn't the first or best, but it made the genre blow up.
With that said. Themeparks/sandparks have moved further ahead in "uniqueness" than sandbox games. Every sandbox game except Ryzom and SWG and UO is a deathmatch PvP clone. EVE Online is the only successful one of that.
Still waiting for a modern PVE sandbox MMO, but none have been made in a long time. Ryzom is dead, SWG isn't playable except on Emu and I can't play that since I won't torrent it, nor will I buy it since I'd rather download it at a steam or origin store or something similar. And UO is too old.
But themeparks/sandparks have moved ahead quite a bit. Biggest ones that are different are ESO (after one tamriel) and GW2. But as a sandbox MMO fan, its sad none are made with OPTIONAL PVE anymore, just old ones. And pvpers can have their own pvp server. So no one be forced to a certain playstyle. Dunno why they never do that, but it sure is limiting if you want to play a sandbox MMO and don't want to do PVP.
I bet sandbox MMOs would be a lot less niche if they did that, since MMOs have a far bigger PVE playerbase than PvP playerbase.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
I think there's still room for a game like that. The only thing is, and publishers know that too: It needs to be very high in quality, very much up there, to be viable at this point. XIV is competitive and very much alive, but they're also pouring their soul into that game still to this day. Which is why I think that, as always, the only game to kill WoW will be Blizzard's next MMO. They know it too, it's why it doesn't exist... or some other giant AAA with a really good producer
EDIT: I guess Guild Wars 2 could have an honorable mention, as well as ESO. I just always thought they tried to be too simplistic, generic, or so horribly imbalanced, when it came to classes and their customization. Here's tons of classes with tons of specs and abilities from which 1 or 2 actually work! :thumbs_up:
That game started out soooo good. Shame it fell apart after beta.
Yes there are MMOs that are not WoW clones. EVE, Runescape, Darkfall and Wurm Online to name a few.
Not being a WoW clone doesn't guarantee I will like your game, but being a WoW clone pretty much guarantees I won't.
And no, the industry is not done with it. As long as people are willing to defend the fact the ESO and GW2 "Aren't WoW Clones" and continue to play those games despite them only having a few differences from WoW then big developers will keep churning out clones and wondering why we get tired of them so fast (Or in my case simply refuse to try them at this point.)
Can't speak for BDO because I haven't tried it but it could be from what I know about it.
that game introduced me to mmorpgs years ago and I loved it
As to the ones in-production.
Crowfall has the ability to completely disable PVP in your eternal kingdoms and we won't know how viable that is as your main mode of play / how much of a gankfest the three faction PvP option will be until we see them.
We don't really know what Star Citizen will be like in terms or ganking yet and the different areas yet. There will certainly be areas that channel Darkfall and EVE but there may be areas that are pretty carebear too.
Life is Feudal is kind of a gankfest but it's also a very different game than Darkfall and MO with a massive emphasis on building your own settlements more like Wurm Online while Darkfall and MO are more focused on on pure combat and have far less true sandbox elements than LiF. At worst it's a clone of Wurm Online PvP servers.
Shroud of the Avatar isn't a gankfest at all. If anything it's closer to WoW than it is to games like Darkfall. It's also pretty bad and mainly seems to not be a Themepark rather because it lacks the structure of one more than that they've built in many viable sandbox elements outside town building but it falls outside your argument at least.
Pantheon may or may not be a WoW clone from what I understand of it but if it isn't then it doesn't seem like it will be a gankfest.
Chronicles of Elyria is another "We will have to wait and see how it turns out" situation.
I think the big thing to remember though is that the presence of Open World PvP in a game doesn't make it an Open World PvP gankfest title. Wurm Online is a great example of this. There are certainly some Open World PvP areas where you will get ganked if you go the the wrong part of the map or if you don't take shelter while raiding parties are storming through (It's really easy to avoid if you are in an area dominated by your faction and are at least semi-alert though). But the vast majority of the map is completely carebear with ganking totally disabled.
Character creation - needed
Zoned difficulty - not needed to wows extent but people won't like to constantly die in the same places over and over. especially near the start.
End game raids - Again not needed but helpful to keep people playing