What will Blizzard do differently in their Next-Gen MMO.

[Kalas]

I post the same thing in every one of these threads.

Steampunk MMO Steampunk MMO Steampunk MMO Steampunk MMO Steampunk MMO Steampunk MMO Steampunk MMO Pretty pretty please, Blizzard.

I could go for that so long as Blizz is making it.
Also no more Gearscore equivalents, ever.

[marrakoosh]

I could go for that so long as Blizz is making it.
Also no more Gearscore equivalents, ever.

Absolutely. Don't allow ANYONE to see iLvl or equivalent.

I'd be really interested to see if there is an announcement at Blizzcon this year, which is what is predicted.

[Vestig3]

In the end every npc will be voiced by Metzen anyway.

Only if u realy concentrate on hearing his voice u would notice it i totaly dont notice it since most voices "except some" are pretty well done.

[Tuuralihn]

I have but 1 guess in the nest gen-MMO by Blizzard.

What we already have:

Medieval/Fantasy/long time ago = WoW
Sci-fi/future = Starcraft

My guess is that this will be something in our time.
More realistic setting, but, still some magic/fantasy involvement.

[Lazertrooper]

next-gen means new engine, new gameplay mechanics, not new setting.

[Fahrenheit]

My buddy in blizzard tells me this. Think borderlands mixed with fallout 3 with a central commerce and residental hub That is mostly resembled by the sims. The central hub will be accessable via smart phone and web browers, it is here you can chat, buy, sell, etc... you'll also be able to completely level up via crafting and commerce.

[Baabinator]

Absolutely. Don't allow ANYONE to see iLvl or equivalent.

I'd be really interested to see if there is an announcement at Blizzcon this year, which is what is predicted.

You can still do this yourself really.

Just take around 20 items of the same boss, calculate each average's total points of stats added and do the same with a harder boss.

[AverageJoe42]

It might be a MMOFPS game with social aspects.

Source: http://www.blizzardnewmmo.com/Leaks

As a veteran of Planetside, I fully support this concept.

[Adelycia]

It might be a MMOFPS game with social aspects.

Source: http://www.blizzardnewmmo.com/Leaks

I'll just say this.....god, I really hope not...there is to few games out there with GOOD PVE content. I have tried many of the MMO's out there today and they are either huge grindfests or they focus primarily on PVP, which isn't a bad thing....just not what I want to do 90% of the time.

Not to mention the whole FPS issue....I play them every now and then but only with friends. I really can't stand them.

[Mammoth]

Clearly from the mmo forums we see a distinct hatred of so called 'casual' players. So their ideal world will be one that requires you to log a number of hours a week otherwise you lose your mmo licence. This mmo will of course be more excusive so membership fees will have to be 100x more expensive.

----

Joking aside, it would be really really cool to have AI players. A decent AI that can follow orders, tactics and perform mediocre at their class. This would be used for filling those empty spots in groups that you just can't fill.

There are of course many difficulties. You have to have a balance between being too fast and being too stupid. Not to mention programming tactics into these bots, but then having them flexiable enough to use specific tactics of players.

Thinking about it, they will probably only be able to do simple tasks, like: "Damage:Boss1", "Tank:Boss1;Position:##,##", "Heal:Tank", "Heal:Raid". But they must not be pets, they must have to run from AoEs without prompt.

And ofc, they can exist in BGs also. Many FPS games have the ability to play against computer bots, making the game much more fun when theres only two of you.

BUT, if they were able to do this, it would truely be the next generation of MMO, solving the greatest of problems, player populations.

[rzy]

I think the next successful MMO will feature scaling instances or difficulty with group size. As in you could solo an instance but it would ramp up in difficulty as you invited friends to play with you. Quick question too, which MMO's featured 8 players as the max for a single group?

Guildwars is 8 people - Even though i used to solo farm everything :P

[Deleted]

It will be A farmville meets rts game, you can buy extra goods to fill their pockets and an aditional monthly fee is needed to sustain the server which contain your farm ground.



Hope this never happens.

I'm thinking towards rts/fps...

[Deleted]

My buddy in blizzard tells me this. Think borderlands mixed with fallout 3 with a central commerce and residental hub That is mostly resembled by the sims. The central hub will be accessable via smart phone and web browers, it is here you can chat, buy, sell, etc... you'll also be able to completely level up via crafting and commerce.

While this is clearly a lie/jokey response (hard 2 convey in text especially when I dont know u ^.^ )
I would enjoy this kinda of this and is around about what I am expecting.

[Deleted]

Starcraft based MMO ? Your post just made me think that ^^

[woxingma]

No offense, but this is written from a fan-boy point of view. Many MMO's are doing quite well. WoW Continues to do well today not because of content, but because of reputation.

Please point to where the OP is being a "fan-boy". OP's point is that WoW is not particularly innovative and so wonders how blizzard will do stepping into a new MMO market. As for current MMO's, which are doing "quite" well? I see several surviving with Free-to-Play options. I see many that are turning a reasonable profit margin. But quite well?

[zenkai]

I think one of the reasons WOW did so well because it was at the right place at the right time. At the time I believe everquest was the number one MMO and wow seemed to build off of it, I use to view WOW classic as a Everquest, Diablo Hybrid. I think a lot of people where getting tired of everquest, you couldn't do anything without a group, raid bosses where highly contested, it took forever to level, and they where releasing a new expansion like every 3 months, and they where usually full of bugs, I basically think everquest went to hell when Sony bought out full rights.

IT has sense then build on and learn from its mistakes, it's almost a shadow of what it use to be. There has been some good and bad changes depending on your view points. Overall I still enjoy it because they seem to keep the game fresh and there are plenty of things to do .

[Saphirox]

In a word, Social. There are 500 million Facebook users. Zynga is making money hand over fist with Farmville and it's ilk. Now, I don't think Blizz is going to go down that bath directly, or that they'll buy into the 'free-to-play' microtransactions idea whole heartedly, but they HAVE to do something to give the game a more social aspect. Look at all of the guild web-sites out there, look at MMO-Champ, look at all the page-views that are happening, all the community discussion that Blizz isn't part of. Blizz needs to come up with a way that you can participate in the new MMO from your browser, from your mobile phone, from your tablet, from your PC, maybe even from your Console.

Now, this couldn't all be the core-game, as we'd think of it. If you imagine WoW as 'the core game experience' of a next gen MMO (not that WoW will be the next gen, just that what we do in WoW will be what the core-game is like) then what can you build around it that draws people in from those disparate media?

What if someone that really liked FarmVille could set up a crafting shop? They could happily queue up stuff to sell, but it could be accessible in the Core-Game, think 'Preferred storefronts' in the AH, with no need to log into the core-game.

What if people with a smart phone could check that custom shop and do things there? What if there were mini-games that had some minor effect on the core-game that were available via a smart phone?

What if you could have a FPS-type BG using your core-game character, but it was only open to consoles? Again, you could influence the core-game via a console. Say Wintergrasp was console only.

What if guild-housing INCLUDED a battle-net social network? What if Blizz worked something out with Facebook to do guild site-hosting, or they built a Facebook app to do that that pulled your Facebook calendar and linked it to the Guild Calendar. Sign up for Raids from Facebook.

I think Blizz WILL do something interesting in the core-game of the Next Gen MMO, but the real win would be a MMMMORPG... Multi-Media Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. I'm just not sure that Blizz has the people to do it. They'd need a Zuckerburg level brain/luck to really nail it.

This guy has it down to a nut, this is exactly some of the things we're gonna be seeing in blizzards next-gen mmo.
MilitantCasual, I applaude your ability to read between the lines and connect the dots, I really do! This post is spot on and yet avid readers of mmo-champ will not have been able to piece this together from newsposts on the frontpage over the year. I guess to most of the frequenters here, the subtle heading of blizzard/activision is not very easy to see, then again to some of us, it is extremely easy to see. Anyway, good post, someone should screenshot your post, print and frame it and in 3 years Boub can link the picture on this homepage's frontpage with the title.

THIS GUY FIGURED IT OUT THREE YEARS AGO!

Peace out =)

[Malthurius]

next-gen means new engine, new gameplay mechanics, not new setting.

It's confirmed that the new MMO will be a new IP. So, yes, new setting.

[Eroginous]

See, the thing that makes this thread tricky, is that as long as wow remains successful, and the current design stays close to what it is right now, they will not release another MMO.

They might be developing something new, and they might be basing it off of new IP, cramming it full of new mechanics, 3d technology, ect.

However, they will not release it as long as it competes with the player base of its current top performer.

You have to realize that many customers will choose the better product, and if the are coming out with something that is truly new IP, in an innovative way, it will be a stark contrast to wow, and many wow players will migrate to the new MMO.

They will wait until wow sees a severe downturn in player base (if that ever happens) before they move to release a new MMO.

[Atica]

In a interview a Blizzard employee said that when they where choosing genre for the new MMO they where looking into MMP FPS, MMO Racing, and stuff like that. A new concept that hasn't been done. They have also said that it's not competing with WoW. It will also be built on a new IP. So tbh, i dont think its going to be a roleplaying experience at all. I would put my cards on a MMO RTS / MMO Strategy game, because we all know that Blizzard is experts on making Strategy games and that they want to create a whole new concept that does not compete with the other MMOS out there. MMO RTS is something very unexplored, something Blizzard has been looking for.

See, the thing that makes this thread tricky, is that as long as wow remains successful, and the current design stays close to what it is right now, they will not release another MMO.

They might be developing something new, and they might be basing it off of new IP, cramming it full of new mechanics, 3d technology, ect.

However, they will not release it as long as it competes with the player base of its current top performer.

You have to realize that many customers will choose the better product, and if the are coming out with something that is truly new IP, in an innovative way, it will be a stark contrast to wow, and many wow players will migrate to the new MMO.

They will wait until wow sees a severe downturn in player base (if that ever happens) before they move to release a new MMO.

im pretty confident they've said that this MMo wont compete with WoW or any other MMOs on the market because its entirley new. So i would not worry abotu that.