Is WoW and the MMO genre not evolving?

[SodiumChloride]

As I mentioned, the games commodity and the ease of access to stuff in wow and other MMORPG's have set the standard. So big is the only way to go. But ease will still follow.

I mentioned Star Citizen, and it'll take you a solid day of irl flying to get from one side of the galaxy to the other, so theres no immidiate help unless you plan ahead and such.

I can't think of a way to bring the journey back into even a normal MMORPG anymore that has portals or flying without making it so massive it would be a big boggling and almost span what it would be to traverse USA irl at the same speed as you can fly in wow hehe, then you could teleport to a place and still require a 5-10 minute flight to where you wanted to go, could bring back some of the memory, but it would need to be truly massive

Ah the "journey" ...

Sorry, but I don't consider sitting on a flight path for 15 mins doing nothing of significance nor travelling from point A to point B by "manually driving there", a "journey". It's more like commuting which I assure you no one enjoys.

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i feel like wow has stopped innovating and simply lifting ideas from other MMO's since, maybe TBC or early wotlk.

i mean, what is something completely new that wow hasn't stolen from other games, or are merely conveniance improvement factors?

Or maybe WoW has always been lifting ideas from other MMOs ... it's just that after they wipe out all other said MMOs ... they have no one to lift from no more.

xD

[Thimagryn]

Or maybe WoW has always been lifting ideas from other MMOs ... it's just that after they wipe out all other said MMOs ... they have no one to lift from no more.

This. WoW was never innovative, even from the very beginning. It just took what Everquest and Ultima Online presented, added some quality of life boosts, lifted the auction halls from FF11 and polished everything up over a course of years. The game itself is a hybrid of every successful part of MMO's before it.

[Seefer]

It's evolving. It's just evolving in a poor direction.

Pretty much this.

[Deleted]

Sorry, but I don't consider sitting on a flight path for 15 mins doing nothing of significance nor travelling from point A to point B by "manually driving there", a "journey". It's more like commuting which I assure you no one enjoys.

The reason why such mechanics are there is to make the world feel large and distances to matter. Many people do enjoy the feel of a huge world, which you don't get when you can instantly travel anywhere. You can't have a game with only rewards, because then they wouldn't be rewards at all.

[shise]

At some point we will have to face the fact that, just like everything else, MMORPGames will have a very low time, trends affect them, but I'm confident it will always be able to keep a minimum amount of people playing.

A game like WoW will be fought for, even if the subs drop very low, they will always try to keep it alive because it is something too big and influencial to just let it die.But I am one of those who believe that it is better to die in a good moment than trying too hard.

[Deleted]

No mmorpgs in general are evolving. Wow isnt! Tera,GW2,blade and soul and black dessert offer action combat,a mixture of moba with wow. I feel blizzard is making demon hunter with that in mind,but the other classes will be outdated.

Legion is a step in the right direction,yes,but 3 years ago. Diablo-bounty-like dailies,GW2's scaling system (reversed) are features already semi-old.
For PvE blizzard needs to learn from GW2 HoT new zones. Its the best "map" experience I ever had in an mmo.
For PvP what to say?! Blizzard needs to start caring about! But i shall keep a low profile on this,maybe the new pvp reward system would be good and fresh (even tho something similar already exists in GW2)

[Low Hanging Fruit]

Problem isn't the genre but those making it and those buying them. Right now people want pick up, play for 5 minus, and then put down type of games. Developers love this because they can make game smaller and smaller and charge roughly the same. If not more. Until the facebook fad of video gaming passes you can kind of give up on anything big and revolutionary. Now it isn't that I have a problem with these types of games. I play them on my phone all the time, so don't pigeon hole me. But the problem is that it has taken hold of the whole gaming industry.

[Seefer]

Problem isn't the genre but those making it and those buying them. Right now people want pick up, play for 5 minus, and then put down type of games. Developers love this because they can make game smaller and smaller and charge roughly the same. If not more. Until the facebook fad of video gaming passes you can kind of give up on anything big and revolutionary. Now it isn't that I have a problem with these types of games. I play them on my phone all the time, so don't pigeon hole me. But the problem is that it has taken hold of the whole gaming industry.

People have the attention span of an amoeba, I always say phones are getting smarter and people are getting dumber.

[zorkuus]

Problem isn't the genre but those making it and those buying them. Right now people want pick up, play for 5 minus, and then put down type of games. Developers love this because they can make game smaller and smaller and charge roughly the same. If not more. Until the facebook fad of video gaming passes you can kind of give up on anything big and revolutionary. Now it isn't that I have a problem with these types of games. I play them on my phone all the time, so don't pigeon hole me. But the problem is that it has taken hold of the whole gaming industry.

Even better if you can jam them microtransactions into these small and very easy to make games. Maximum profit for minimal effort and the stupified masses eat it up. Make them pay to watch commercials next... oh wait that has already happened.

[SodiumChloride]

The reason why such mechanics are there is to make the world feel large and distances to matter. Many people do enjoy the feel of a huge world, which you don't get when you can instantly travel anywhere. You can't have a game with only rewards, because then they wouldn't be rewards at all.

Non sequitur.

Long travel times do not make the world feel huge. It would be like being trapped in a bathroom stall with uranium tied to your legs and claiming how big it makes the stall feels.

I will say it again. You want the world to feel big, make it actually big - long draw distances (no point having a huge world if the player can't see it), lots of landmass filled with things of interest (mobs, NPC encampments, dungeons, caves ... etc.) ... so on and so forth.

[melodramocracy]

Non sequitur.

It really isn't. Travel times play a large role in the overall scope of a game. In the case of game systems like insta travel (GW2), being able to bypass just about everything on your way to a specific point of interest does a great deal to make the world feel much smaller.

Flight points themselves suffer because they're entirely non-interactive, but that's another argument.

[SodiumChloride]

It really isn't. Travel times play a large role in the overall scope of a game. In the case of game systems like insta travel (GW2), being able to bypass just about everything on your way to a specific point of interest does a great deal to make the world feel much smaller.

Flight points themselves suffer because they're entirely non-interactive, but that's another argument.

/shrug

Just got to agree to disagree I suppose.

WoW to me has always felt cramped. The draw distance is terrible even on ultra. The world being devoid of anything interesting didn't help - seriously, it's just a bunch of wandering quests mobs and a quest hub or 2 that you don't give a crap about after you are done with them. In a way, WoW's game world might as well have been an empty cube room.

[Saberstrike]

But WoW has been stealing ideas since conception. Factions (anarchy online), red vs blue (age-old cliche), warhammer-inspired races, all the pop-culture references, etc etc.; For every original thought the game had there were always 50 cleverly nicked ones.

It just so happened that the copycat became the leader. And the game has been stalling ever since, because there hasn't been any more successful projects for them to steal ideas from.