well the key thing IF they want to make a sequel is to not alienate your current player base.  if nothing else you will sustain current subscribers with a good familiar design, so if current players are tired of the old game will find the new one a nice change of pace.

Plus if they add a few new elements and make the game have more re-play value as well as fun activities within the game that give it more addictive playability the better.  

That way they may gain new subscribers as well as appease your already fanbase.  Consistency, value, quality and overall fun seem to be some key factors to paying close attention also when doing a sequel.  And reading reviews about your own game can help a good bit, plus in-game questionaires of the original.  that way they can really get a feel for what worked and what didn't and carry over all the favorite things of the original.  Then add some more possibly innovative elements.  

But hey, i'm just sayin...

Im shocked that you did not include Ultima Online and its endless expansions (or sequels by definition), for anyone who started out on UO i have found that most are still looking for a game that includes so many facets as this pioneer of the mmo era.  But still a very good article.

I'm looking forward to FF 14! Should be an interesting game. Too bad DaOC didn't have a sequel. Great game! And of course UO-it just never updated itself with graphics.

Originally posted by AlienShirt

Turbine really needs to do a REAL sequel to Asheron's Call. AC2 was not worthy of the Asheron's Call name. I still feel it was just a tech demo for Turbine that helped them procure rights to DnD and LOTR.

Blame Microsoft.

Originally posted by Mrbloodworth

Originally posted by AlienShirt

Turbine really needs to do a REAL sequel to Asheron's Call. AC2 was not worthy of the Asheron's Call name. I still feel it was just a tech demo for Turbine that helped them procure rights to DnD and LOTR.

 

Blame Microsoft.

 Thats usually a good place to start... But I was there for most of that sorry mess. There is much more than enough blame to go around for both of them. Not to mention that Mickysoft was long out of the picture, when Turbine sold us an expansion and then closed the game down not that long afterwards.

EVE Online is on its 3rd iteration and soon to be fourth in 2010.

Yours in Eve Plasma,

Star*Dagger

Final Fantasy XIV is not a PS3 Exclusive, S-E has even said so themselves. They are working with Microsoft and would like to bring FFXIV to the 360.

Originally posted by SyaoranLi

Final Fantasy XIV is not a PS3 Exclusive, S-E has even said so themselves. They are working with Microsoft and would like to bring FFXIV to the 360.

Does anyone care about Console mmos?  Is that even possible without a proper PC?

OK maybe possible, but why?

Yours in PC Gamer Plasma,

Star*Dagger

Originally posted by StarDagger

Originally posted by SyaoranLi

Final Fantasy XIV is not a PS3 Exclusive, S-E has even said so themselves. They are working with Microsoft and would like to bring FFXIV to the 360.

 

Does anyone care about Console mmos?  Is that even possible without a proper PC?

OK maybe possible, but why?

 

Yours in PC Gamer Plasma,

Star*Dagger

CCP seems to care about consoles, as DUST 514 will be first released on them.  Current generation consoles have some advantages over PC's in terms of coding for them(standard hardware and SDK's). They also tap in to a different(but in some cases overlapping) demographic. The downside is they aren't nearly as effective when dealing with FPS style games. No standard interface so far has beaten the mouse, keyboard for smooth game play, and ease of access to many functions.  A non FPS MMO on the other hand might be possible, if its controls are well thought out and implimented.  But I suspect it would still suffer from the inherent limitations of the controller.  Not to mention that the physical skills involved in PC's do not transfer over to console controllers.

Originally posted by Wraithone

Originally posted by StarDagger

Originally posted by SyaoranLi

Final Fantasy XIV is not a PS3 Exclusive, S-E has even said so themselves. They are working with Microsoft and would like to bring FFXIV to the 360.

 

Does anyone care about Console mmos?  Is that even possible without a proper PC?

OK maybe possible, but why?

 

Yours in PC Gamer Plasma,

Star*Dagger

 

CCP seems to care about consoles, as DUST 514 will be first released on them.  Current generation consoles have some advantages over PC's in terms of coding for them(standard hardware and SDK's). They also tap in to a different(but in some cases overlapping) demographic. The downside is they aren't nearly as effective when dealing with FPS style games. No standard interface so far has beaten the mouse, keyboard for smooth game play, and ease of access to many functions.  A non FPS MMO on the other hand might be possible, if its controls are well thought out and implimented.  But I suspect it would still suffer from the inherent limitations of the controller.  Not to mention that the physical skills involved in PC's do not transfer over to console controllers.

CCP is making Dust 514 to LINK INTO the EVE universe, making the console masses minions of the capsule-pilots playing EVE on the PC (and 2 or so on the Mac, lol)

Good point about CCP "caring", only CCP could, in a single stroke, both make money off of, insult and entertain console users. 

Yours in PC Gaming Mastery Plasma,

Star*Dagger

---

Originally posted by nate1980
I'm a huge fan of sequels and prequels, because it adds to the original story. I'm the type that has read every Star Wars adult novels ranging from the Old Republic times to the New Republic times. The type that reads entire series of books.
I'd be thrilled if more MMO's, the good ones, made sequels. The problem is that most MMO's don't have a central story, so making a sequel is essentially just creating a different time period. If all you're doing is advancing the time line, you could do that with an expansion. In fact, you can even advance the story with expansions, so a sequel isn't really necessary. But still, sequels would benefit the genre by allowing an older game to bow out gracefully, and allowing developers to create a similar game with updated features. For example, fans of DAoC have been clamoring for a sequel for years. DAoC is still a decent looking game, but the gameplay, animations, and movement is archaic compared to modern day MMO's. So Mythic could really do the game justice by creating a sequel that captures the essence of DAoC, and implementing all the things they wished they could do with DAoC in DAoC 2. So you'd have a sequel that looks a lot better, plays a lot smoother, and contains modern day features that gamers have come to expect, yet are still able to get the same experience they got in the old DAoC.
Where sequels fail is when they do too much different. The core audience of sequels are the players who played the first game. So it's bad to alienate them by introducing a sequel that doesn't play or really remind them of the original game at all. So I think Sequels could work for this genre, but they need to really be successors of the original game, not a totally different game than the original, where the only thing the two games share is lore, the name, and maybe a few features.

---

I long for the day they make DAoC2. It doesn't look like they have any interest in it with EA in charge.... WAR was ok, but no DAoC, they got some good idea, but man I miss all the classes they had in DAoC. Since Mark Jacob left Mythic, all hope is gone. I think Mythic still owns all rights to DAoC, so even if Mark wanted to make DAoC2, he couldn't..

Jon, one part of your EverQuest II section is incorrect:

First, in 2004, EverQuest Online Adventures, a PS2 exclusive prequel to the original game that failed to garner the same kind of attention as the original. Then, the next year, SOE launched EverQuest II to much fanfare.

Not right. EQOA launched in early 2003. EverQuest II launched two weeks before World of Warcraft in November of 2004.

Otherwise, nice article.

Interesting article.  Great to see Everquest 2 in the #1 spot--it's much deserved.