Blizzards Next-Gen MMO

[emesto]

Welcome to the topic to talk about Blizzards next-gen MMO.

What we know:

• It's going to be a new IP (new setting and new lore).
• Several people left the wow team to work on the new MMO including John Cash, Shane Dabiri, Justin Thavirat and Jeffrey Kaplan.
• Blizzard have stated that it will be targetted towards a "broader audience" than WoW.

Rumors:

• A French website claiming to have an inside source said it is a Sci-Fi MMOFPS.
• Some people think it could be Starcraft: Ghost, which Blizz said they would like to return to one day.
• It could be released on consoles

Known Developers:

Vitaliy Naymushin - Senior Character Artist
Renaud Galand - 3D Artist
Marc Brunet - Concept Artist
Miles Johnson - Web Developer
David Clyde - Senior Software Engineer
Sid Kapur - Senior Software Engineer

Bobby Kotick over "Broader Appeal"

Talking at at the Deutsche Bank Securities Technology Conference in San Francisco, Activision Blizzards’ CEO Bobby Kotick said that Blizzards’ new MMO would be designed to have broader appeal. Kotick also talked about the companies’ vision for Battle.net, dropping hints of plans to integrate prizes and better systems to recognize achievements through battle.net.

So what would an MMO with broader appeal look like for Blizzard? It is clear that nothing can be said for sure at this point, but there are several things it could mean:

More Accessible, Streamlined Gameplay.

Yes, we know that hardcore gamers consider WoW to be vastly watered down already when it comes to the depth many MMO’s have, but for the average casual gamer there’s still a dizzying amount of information to learn to be able to play your character well. An MMO that appeals to a broader market may streamline gameplay and character mechanics a bit to appeal to more players.

Less of a Time Sink.

The time commitment to get anywhere in your typically MMO is huge, and we suspect it is one of the reasons many people choose not to play. An MMO that appeals to a broader audience may focus on allowing players to make real progress in the game even if they only have an hour or two to play here and there.

No Magic Elves.

We love dragons, orcs and pointy-eared casters as much as the next guy, but let’s face it: there are a lot of gamers who just don’t dig the high-fantasy setting that many MMO’s employ. It is possible that Blizzard may set their next gen MMO in a world that is interesting and appealing but doesn’t limit it’s audience by re-treading the whole “dragons and guys in robes” thing.

Paul Sams on not taking away from the Wow player base

At Blizzard’s annual fan convention BlizzCon this past weekend, chief operating officer Paul Sams said that although there has been some initial concern in the company about cannibalizing their WoW subscribers, they think they’ll get over it quickly.

“I think the (new MMO) is going to be significantly differentiated enough,” Sams said. “Such that, you’re not going to feel like they’re one and the same resulting in that you have to pick or choose,” he said.

“If the bad thing that happens to us is that they leave WoW and go to this other thing of Blizzard’s, then we’ll work through that pain,” he added.

Read More http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2009/0...#ixzz0eESQq2tE

Rob Pardo on Console MMORPGs

Microsoft has shown us some stuff they have in development and they asked us our opinion about it – that's all that was. But as far as MMOs on consoles, there's a lot of challenges. I'd say challenge #1 is the input device. So if you're going to port a game like WoW how does that work? Do you ship a keyboard and a mouse? Do you try to make a game that [adapts] to all the different controls and buttons? That's a porting issue. The bigger issue would be things like hard drives. I think WoW now is about 10 gigs and we're always pushing out more content. That's something cloud computing could eventually solve, but in the current generation of consoles that's a lot to deal with. You'd have to eat almost the entire hard drive, and there are Xbox consoles [sold to consumers] that don't have hard drives. So that's a big issue.

Another big issue is how to actually do patches because the certification process is pretty arduous to do that. I know that's something Microsoft is trying to work out so you can do more updates and the certification process is faster, but it's not going to be nearly as fast as we can do it. We just put it through our QA department and upload to our servers. ... Then, the other big issue is the business model. Right now, Microsoft and Sony charge platform fees for retail, but if you do an MMO there and it's subscription-based, they're going to want a cut of the subscription revenue too, and so that becomes a hurdle. So there's definitely a lot of hurdles right now for doing MMOs on a console, but it all can be overcome and I think in the next generation of consoles it'll be much easier.

Example work of Marc Brunet - Concept Artist

Please don't get the wrong idea, this is not artwork from the new game just an example of the style of the concept artist.

Example work of Vitaliy Naymushin - Senior Character Artist

Current Recruitment

Blizzard currently has a number of spots open for recruitment on the next-gen MMO, these are listed below:

• Lead 3D Character Artist
• 3D Character Artist
• 3D Environment Artist
• 3D Character Equipment Artist
• Art Department Manager
• Associate Software Engineer
• FX Animator
• Information Architect
• Senior Graphics Programmer
• Senior Level Designer

Experience of the developers includes working on:

[Lilscrappy]

It will be futuristic in some way because Blizzard does NOT want to take away from WoW,
the majority of people out there think it will be an MMOFPS as well, preferably steam punk-esque.

[robaroo]

I cant wait for more info regarding this title. Hopefully they will officially announce something soon

[Kynttila]

all i hope is that it wont be an animefag game, which basically is WoW without blood elves...

[emesto]

I just added another snippet of Rob Pardo taken from an interview by Gamespy.com about MMOs on consoles. I will keep updating the original post when I find more useful/interesting stuff.

Also if anybody else posts something good I will put that into the first post too.

[chaddlock]

I have been looking for a really good sci-fi/space MMO for sometime now. I missed the boat on the starwars galaxies and EVE games I feel. I know stargate and star trek are coming out this year, but neither of those looks all that appealing to me. Go go, Blizzard... bring home a great NEW IP (I don't want to see Ghost!).

[sharkee]

I hate space settings so bad. I'm more for the post-apocalyptic settings. Fallout 3 was awesome.

[Kynttila]

I hate space settings so bad. I'm more for the post-apocalyptic settings. Fallout 3 was awesome.

Cant wait for Fallout 4 and New Vegas <3

[Juggernautt]

Nice thread emesto.

I would hope it's starcraft ghost is all =).

[Deleted]

Here's what that French Website said: "According to our information (obtained, as they say, a source familiar with the matter), the next MMO from Blizzard is in part an FPS. It will take place in a futuristic universe. It changes from clear to the MMORPG World of Warcraft.

In this new MMO, each player has two "lives" his first "life" is a kind of Sims Online, a giant hub with social interaction and the ability to connect to its second life. Which will consist of fighting for subjective."

[Naivedo]

I am sure they are going to take out all the addictive elements like raid lockouts which force you to do all the raids once a week and maybe all kinds of grinding. Like for example, hardcore epic grinding and level grinding. Think about WoW with no epics, more fun gameplay and characters that only level up to like 30. Maybe more features and role play elements.

[NonMagical]

I have also heard (privately) that the next gen is an MMOFPS as well. Interesting to hear other people getting the same rumor from other sources.

[NonMagical]

You can't say something like that without throwing us a bone about your "private" source...

If you really cared about keeping it secret you wouldn't have mentioned it.

The only people that are likely to know anything about this at the moment are the artists/engineers/web developers/managers/QA(maybe). If you don't know one of those he is probably making it up.

I'm not claiming my source is credible so there was no need to say it. Merely a friend who has friends in some of the higher spots in blizzard. The information likely is filtered through so many stories it's as reliable as the game telephone.

Put emphasis in my quote on the word "rumor", because that was all it was!

[Sien]

all i hope is that it wont be an animefag game, which basically is WoW without blood elves...

:

[Daginni]

While the details are far from set in stone.

I personally don't think I would enjoy a futuristic based MMORPG, they all seem to end up being Fantasy Medieval MMORPG Formula with a Star War Textures in one way or another. For example, we have some guy with a Lazer Sword, or Chainsaw Sword being the Tank, some soldier class being the DPS, biotic class being healer or mage.

[NonMagical]

If it's an MMOFPS I don't think that would necessarily be the case.

God help us all if we are supposed to press mouse1 to swing our sword and mouse2 to block, though. I would throw up a little.

[wow4lyfe05]

I cant wait for more info regarding this title. Hopefully they will officially announce something soon

Only time Blizz Officially announces anything is during Blizzcon. So if you mean soo as in like August then yeah you might hear something then.

[Shammypower]

Bioware teams up with Blizzard to make a Mass Effect MMORPG? lol I would like to see that <.<

[Jäded]

I wish I knew more info on it! I would love to start reading up on the lore behind the game.