After playing MMOs for 16 years now I have experienced 2 MMOs that really stand out from the rest and made an impact on the market.

First was EverQuest - the first Grand Scale MMO to be in 3d and to really make an impact in the market. Back in the day during the first few expansions, Kunark, Vellious there were news articles of babies dying due to neglect...THAT sort of thing. EQ was HUGE there's no denying it.

Then came World of Warcraft - the first Grand Scale mass appeal MMO. Not much needs to be said here since WoW is still the current MMO Champion regardless of personal feelings, the #s speak for themselves.

I wonder what the next "Big Game" will be and what it will bring to the table. To determine to the future I study the past and IMHO EQ and WOW are very similar in that they share a lot of the same kind of classes, are medieval genre and have an emphasis on end game bosses. It would only seem logical then that the next big game will be a newer version of just that. However, several have tried and all have failed to be the next Big MMO. Are we waiting for the right one to come along or does the "Next Big Thing" need to be completely different than what we've been playing?

i think its subjective

I loved EQ and it was the first mmo to introduce raiding into the gamesphere -- but i never cared for raids myself

WOW changed the landscape for making mmos solo friendly and polished

but personally I was bored with WOW after the first month of launch -- and it wasnt a mmo changer for me

Guild Wars was the first game that inspired gameplay for me since EQ

 yes i know --- GW is not a mmo

- no raids, players could choose from many skills and have dual classes that could be changed at town outposts

I played GW PVE like a mmo doing pickup groups with strangers, doing LFG looking for healer, etc   faction grinds, but no "power gear" grinds

- max level of 20 but most the PVE game content was for level 20 anyhow   (similar to level 50 in DAOC)

I was hoping GW PVE style of play would catch on to other mmos but it never did;  closest i saw was probably DCUO

im very happy GW2 is the successor to GW

for me, GW2 is the next big thing after EQ

In my opinion UO was "bigger" than EQ in many ways.  UO was very popular for quite a while.  Secondly it has set certain benchmarks that are almost never reached by other games.

EQ it self was just a 3d version of a rather old and dated model.  When EQ released it looked like rather old hat to me and it was filled with design decisions I had seen repeated tons of times that I thought kind of sucked for "normal" gamers.  I feel justified in that opinion as WoW addressed abut 70% of these things and it was one of things that made it an order of magnitude more popular than EQ (that and the cult of blizzard).  It was popular and in many ways it popularized the idea of massive interactions in an online world more than UO.  It was also tied down in a bajillion old and overly simplified sterotypical RPG setups that did not even come close to taking advantae of the medium like UO did.

But I think as we see things unfold in history UO will be recognized as a much bigger deal for the genre than EQ

IMO the next big MMO will either be console based/Cross platform or a sandbox equivalent of what WoW did, bring in the masses.

Don't think we will ever see a PC based themepark game do what WoW did.

UO is the first .. but it shows you the idea of virtual world does not always turn into a good game.

EQ takes the diku mud formula .. a much more hack-n-slash approach .. and was 2x more successful.

Blizz releases that MMO are GAMES, and turn MMO into a proper game.

The next big thing .. may be Marvel Heroes ... first AAA MMO that is made for F2P and not a conversion.

the next big thing will focus "massively" on immersion of the player..

1st person view

fps combat

integrated and modulated voice chat

integration of motion sensing and facial recognition

a more personal (you are there) experience than previous games

smaller groups..3 players..

aka eq3

Originally posted by rungard

the next big thing will focus "massively" on immersion of the player..

1st person view

fps combat

integrated and modulated voice chat

integration of motion sensing and facial recognition

a more personal (you are there) experience than previous games

smaller groups..3 players..

aka eq3

 

 

Agreed. dotHack anyone?

If they can make .Hack run like it did in the show, then yes. however our tech isn't nearly ready for that. I think the next big game is gonna be who ever can manage to take all the REALLY good ideas out there and mold them into one game.

For what is in games already

FoM - Playerbased Economy. Beautiful system that makes everything player made.

TSW-Leveless Structure

GW2/Tera/Vindictus-Action oriented combat (if i have this wrong then correct me)

GW2 - Dynamic Events - If done right can be included in a sandbox game aswell.

What can be exparemented with

PvE and Sandbox Servers - if you think about it you could really make the same game, one that is completely Player run and another that is built like a themepark. i also wouldnt mind them being interchangeable.

Limited NPC's - Using NPC's to only make the world look populated instead of them being vendors

I don't think there will  be a next big thing. I mean, look at the mmo list on this website alone. I've been gaming for quite awhile as well, but theres too much competition now. You don't have to wait for a game to release new content, you just bounce to another. Alot of my friends won't leave wow, because they put in a decade there(hard to leave that kind of commitment), I was lucky when WoW came out, because I didn't want a simple themepark so I skipped that game. Not judging it at all, just not for me.

Now, I can't really stick with an mmo, cause like clockwork, six months after it releases the servers empty out lol. Until an mmo somehow finds a way to launch with years worth of content, and not just years worth of gear treadmills, I believe they will all die off at six months post release.

For mmos, possibly MMOFPS? Pricing: F2P??

For games in general, social gaming seems to attract a new market?

For tech, that virtual reality goggle or the Clang project to design a dynamic controller for swinging swords. Also smart tvs.

For design, something like Artemis becoming more popular *wishful thinking* :)

For community, modding scene and turning spg's into multiplayer eg GTA, DayZ, Minecraft and then adding their own competitions, sub game houserule sets etc.

For investment, crowd sourcing already...

: )

Good times ahead.

No idea in the mobile space, lots of "race to the bottom" problems and change in the tech going on so rapidly. Probably social games on mobile done right.

I think very few devs have the amount of resources needed to shake the industry like blizzard, bioware behind EA was probably the closest attempt, beyond that it's just a bunch of wow-clones and indie devs struggling with some interesting ideas for years on end.

Blizzard's titan project will be something to look for, and planetside 2 will be fun, but I think shaking the industry like WOW needs a ton of money and a few stars to line up - the game also needs to appeal to non-gamers, which is probably where WOW's genius truly lies, frankly I don't see any game on the horizon having that effect.

I feel gamers holding on for 'the next big thing' is starting to seem like a fools errand to me, all of the fanbases that claimed they were about to ursurp wow's mantle have turned into bitter cynics - frankly I think we need to stop clinging on to that notion and just enjoy games for what they are, something that you can pick up and enjoy few days, and maybe weeks, nothing more.

Is EQ Next or EQ3 still going to happen? I'm talking about a big MMORPG using the same engine as Planetside 2 (not a browser game). Anyone know?

I believe the "next big thing" will probably be ArcheAge.  It looks like one of the few games that may appeal to a wider audience of MMO players, in that it appears it will be more of a virtual world (finally) than just a game (GW2, RIFT, etc).  It has a chance to appeal to both themepark and sandbox players, in that it has elements of both within its design.

For NA and EU players, it's probably going be a relatively long wait, unfortunately.

MMO as a game platform.   Instead of thinking of the MMO world as the game, think of it as a game platform on which smaller games run/interact.

DUST is an example of this sort of thinking (a FPS-shooter plugged into EVE).  I think the game that will take off and create a new subgenre will be a similar idea, but be composed of a larger number of smaller apps which take the place of expansion packs in the business model.

Originally posted by Rohn

I believe the "next big thing" will probably be ArcheAge.  It looks like one of the few games that may appeal to a wider audience of MMO players, in that it appears it will be more of a virtual world (finally) than just a game (GW2, RIFT, etc).  It has a chance to appeal to both themepark and sandbox players, in that it has elements of both within its design.

For NA and EU players, it's probably going be a relatively long wait, unfortunately.

Yeah but from what I have seen of that game it's just for Final Fantasy fans who want a sandbox game. The Pokemon look of AA has eliminated it from my list.