What so you think would make a successful new MMO?

[Luxeley]

I think you nailed it! No matter how much people bitch and complain about WOW (and I am certainly one of them), WOW on it's worst day is still better than any other MMO out there. The one and only reason $15 per month appears to be greedy and lack value is because WOW skimps on content as much as possible. For example: 10-12 months of raiding ICC, DS and SOO. And, each new xpac reveals the blemishes of the previous ones. I understand the amount of time and money involved with upgrading older content and that may be unreasonable because it's not profitable. However, small tweaks here and there would add to the game and give people a better sense of what they're paying for. Still compared to other forms of entertainment: sporting events, movies, concerts and a night out drinking with your friends, $15 per month is cheaper than all of them.

I strongly believe the time is perfectly ripe for another MMO to over take WOW. So it's not question of how good another MMO is as much as it is question of how much more Blizzard can mess up WOW. Blizzard made a lot of recent bad in game decisions recently and WOD brings us more bad decisions. I don't like the direction WOD is heading in, it's very bad for the game's longevity. Moving away from the "run and gun" style of game play is HUGE mistake. Garrisons, a feature I didn't care for or want, in all honestly, look amazing. I've quested through both Frostfire Ridge and Shadowmoon and the addition of Garrisons to the questing process is brilliant, fun and amazing. However, if people progress with their garrison, they will eventually be able to access the AH from their Garrison. That means a hell of a lot of less players in major cities and guess what, the "empty world" feeling is back. That is a very bad thing and a huge mistake.

[AestostheInsane]

A game like GW 2 with better/more varied end game content (raids and such) would be incredible.
I think that was the only part that was missing for me to keep me engaged and playing it for longer than I did.

I honestly hate to admit this, but a friend sent me some screens from his game showing off his new armor, and I don't find GW pleasing to the eye at all =-/ could have been his graphic settings though

[Deleted]

First of all, all MMOs need to die and have a gap in the industry for around 10 years. After that, they can start from scratch with the new generation of gamers taking the lead. No need for new stuff. We just need to lose our current stuff for some time in order to miss them and start enjoying them again.

[cityguy193]

First of all, all MMOs need to die and have a gap in the industry for around 10 years. After that, they can start from scratch with the new generation of gamers taking the lead. No need for new stuff. We just need to lose our current stuff for some time in order to miss them and start enjoying them again.

That will happen in about ~4-5 years when the total MMO players will end up being 2-3 million or so.

[Deleted]

That will happen in about ~4-5 years when the total MMO players will end up being 2-3 million or so.

Yeah, World War III could have a nasty effect on the global population.

[Deleted]

You are all very foolish if you think MMOs are ever going away.

[AestostheInsane]

I think you nailed it! No matter how much people bitch and complain about WOW (and I am certainly one of them), WOW on it's worst day is still better than any other MMO out there. The one and only reason $15 per month appears to be greedy and lack value is because WOW skimps on content as much as possible. For example: 10-12 months of raiding ICC, DS and SOO. And, each new xpac reveals the blemishes of the previous ones. I understand the amount of time and money involved with upgrading older content and that may be unreasonable because it's not profitable. However, small tweaks here and there would add to the game and give people a better sense of what they're paying for. Still compared to other forms of entertainment: sporting events, movies, concerts and a night out drinking with your friends, $15 per month is cheaper than all of them.

I strongly believe the time is perfectly ripe for another MMO to over take WOW. So it's not question of how good another MMO is as much as it is question of how much more Blizzard can mess up WOW. Blizzard made a lot of recent bad in game decisions recently and WOD brings us more bad decisions. I don't like the direction WOD is heading in, it's very bad for the game's longevity. Moving away from the "run and gun" style of game play is HUGE mistake. Garrisons, a feature I didn't care for or want, in all honestly, look amazing. I've quested through both Frostfire Ridge and Shadowmoon and the addition of Garrisons to the questing process is brilliant, fun and amazing. However, if people progress with their garrison, they will eventually be able to access the AH from their Garrison. That means a hell of a lot of less players in major cities and guess what, the "empty world" feeling is back. That is a very bad thing and a huge mistake.

At which point I have to point out something Blizz previously said in that the reason they never really looked at player housing is because it would basically take people out of the world and make it feel empty... however simple choices like Blizz NOT adding an AH in your garrison would have changed that immensely. Much like adding LFD queues and not having to go to the instance actually killed people moving around out in the world. I feel like there are certain zones where blizz could add a piece of the most interesting content in the world, not tell anyone, and because everyone's standing on the sandbox in the middle of stormwind, queueing for whatever, Nobody would notice for months...

[Anium]

Wow has graced us of everything we could ever need or want from an mmo. No other mmo could come close to what we first experienced as we did with WoW, they set the standard so high and we were all captivated by its sheer awesomeness. Nothing can be done.
Star wars probably came closest to capturing new and current playerbase, but look what happened to that...
Rift and wildstar are probably the next two semi impressive mmos ( don't mean to offend )

[Tirilka]

It needs to be totally different from WoW and its clones. No sub fee, no levels, no instances, no linear gameplay.

Well to be honest, Everquest Next looks reeeeally promising, and it's absolutely different than WoW. Horizontal power grow (gear enhances abilities, not simply increases stats), something akin to living story in GW2, but absolutely player defined and on a bigger scale - different servers will have different outcomes: in given example developers told that some towns might not even be founded, or will be razed as a consequence of player actions. Different type of AI - based on fluctuating environment, instead of strict respawn in designated places - in example, the orcs attacked caravans on the road, so traders started to avoid that path, and orcs left because there wasn't anyone to rob anymore. In another variant, players killed all the orcs. And in yet another, players reported the attacks, and nearest city organized regular patrols, so orcs were driven away, because, once again, this road wasn't profitable anymore.
Combat system looks action-based without any targeting, though I'm not sure, no in-game interface was shown.

Most importantly though - fully destructable environment (though regenerating after some time, to avoid problems) - for example, you can strike the earth so hard that you fall into a cavern layer. Or you can smash the ruins to bits while Whrilwinding as a warrior. Also, there is a second, supporting game called Landmark, which is basically a very fancy and better Minecraft with more progression and action, which features built-in landclaim system, allowing players to create what they want. These can be sold to other players via a game shop, with some percent going to developers. And the best player creations will be featured in the main game (chosen by developers), I suppose when it fits the lore, not just random architecture.

Oh, and graphics looks nice and stylized. Landmark is already in the active beta phase, supposed to be released at the end of this year, last I heard. The main game - no date, but I think not sooner than late 2016. Both are free-to-play, too, with extra care to avoid pay-to-win.

[Arbs]

the only new mmo I want to see is the Following:

WORLD OF STARCRAFT

Its about damn time!

3 way PvP, would be awesome.

[Kolvarg]

Why would I want to play that if I can just play WoW?

Why do people still buy new Super Mario games if they can just play the original?


WoW wasn't "original" either. It was for the most part a congregation of ideas from other games from the time (EverQuest, for instance), attatched to a beloved IP, made by people who are very good at what they do.

But mostly, it came out at at the right time, with the right features and gameplay.

Just like LoL. It's extremly popular not because it is a specially better or original game than others in the genre. It just happened. Like Flappy Bird became so popular because of 1 single youtuber.


If you really think about it, compare Vanilla WoW versus what it is now, you can see it follows the market, driving away from the classic RPG roots to something more fast, less time consuming and more action oriented. And that's why WoW hasn't "died" yet, because it evolved. Because it shamelessly adds new features (be it something that was already used for many years in many MMOs like Transmog; or something that's relatively new like GW2's quest system being brought in WoD) inspired in other games. Because it pleases a wide array of people in one way or the other, while still being the same in essence.

Don't want to shift the topic to WoW though, so.. I say all this because I too think the next big MMO won't be something absurdely original and new.
It might have something very different, but will be the same in essence.
This of course if we ever see any other BIG MMO. And even if we do, I don't think any (subscription-based at least) will ever reach the numbers WoW did.

[McFrotton]

Pokemon MMO with real time combat system like digimon world on playstation. But without the training and potty crap please.

[bbr]

It needs to be totally different from WoW and its clones. No sub fee, no levels, no instances, no linear gameplay.

Guild Wars 2 comes close :P

Ultima - Shroud of the Avatar is coming up,. will have to keep an eye on that.

[Deleted]

Honestly, an MMO based off of Dragon Ball Z or Pokemon (in a different way) would be amazing if done right.

I think Dragon Ball Z in particular has amazing potential as an MMO. It could easily have great PvP and PvE.

"Power Levels" could replace the traditional leveling system. So instead of going from level 1 to 2 to 3 and so on (which isn't very "realistic" or engaging) you simply train and your power level increases.

There is just so much I think could be done with the Dragon Ball universe in an MMO and it could go places that no other game has gone.

They tried that, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Ball_Online Atleast in Japan and Korea, it didn't work out, there is an emulator project going on though, but it isn't released yet

[Ergar]

If Wildstar didn't have the retarded attunement, crazy ammount of bugs, straight up dumb design choices etc, i think it would have been the next big mmo. I don't mind a sub fee, the game was pretty damn amazing until i got to the endgame, and i realised everything that was wrong with it. The housing was amazing too.

[Ferocity]

If to speak about MMORPGs, they should have very long character progression (which some can call as "grind"). "Endgame" shouldn't be focus of the game, but rather as a very distant goal (becoming maximized at everything possible), which isn't reached merely by RNG's favor. It should have actual world and not some tunnels (aka "dungeons") everywhere possible, with dungeons being actually dungeons.

A lot of people simply want to play MMOAction/Arcade or smth like this and some developers try to make MMORPGs oriented at such people. They do it usually by having very hollow game mechanics, making big accent on reflexes, dungeons and world with questlines, where you can't get lost, emphasizing "endgame" (idiotic words of one of ill-famous MMO designers - "we balance only at level cap"). As result we have - recent WoW, Wildstar and many other MMOs.

[Wyrllish]

I'm loving Firefall still. Haven't enjoyed any MMO like this since SWTOR and before that WoW.

[Descolada]

Tough question, mostly because you used the word successful. I think the definition of successful is in the eye of the beholder. Profitable for the devs? Total number of players? I played Rift to cap and I liked it, but my guild broke up and the realm dried up, so back to WoW. I played SWTOR to cap and liked it, but my guild broke up and my realm was merged, so back to WoW. I played Wildstar to cap and enjoyed it immensely. Great guild on a populated realm, they had a lot of features at launch like mods/addons, and the combat system was a lot of fun. If I had to guess why I stopped playing, I would say I didn't like the end game progression. The attunements were fine, and I also liked how the endgame currency system didn't have a daily cap, but the "bronze/silver/gold" was a pain in pugs. One death, not gonna get gold, vote to disband, re-queue. Sure, I could have just run with guildies, but sometimes that's not an option.

I am likely just one of those people that has grown accustomed to the convenience of WoW, which is why it likely still appeals to the masses. I need my guild to raid, but I don't need them to gear up for raiding. I can do dailies or chain run dungeons/LFR on my own time, and I only need to work around 3 firm nights per week to raid.

EDIT: My point being that the people still playing those other MMO's probably consider it successful, but not because it has the massive WoW numbers.

[Zafire]

I still play Final Fantasy XI to this day. It's different from all other MMO's I've played and has a large, immersive world. Menu MMO's would get pointed and laughed at as a concept. Sometimes compelling gameplay comes from simplicity.

MMO's akin to everquest, FFXI, and vanilla WoW at launch are probably long-dead concepts now.

[Deleted]

I don't know why everyone craves themepark, but that imo is why new mmos suck.

I have to agree with this. That model is just boring. I mean if I wanted to play a game where you just queue for "matches", I'd buy a single player game instead. No monthly fee and farming..

I think the old model was more successful because it gave you freedom to do anything you wanted in a virtual world. Maybe it's just me but I find choice appealing and don't want the game to hold my hand, show me where to go or what to do and set limits.