I don't think there will be "The next big MMO" or "The next big game" until we change HOW we play games. I think games have stalled out in the same way movies have; every idea and every location have already been used, so instead of making "new" games the devs just make variances of the ones already created.

IMO to truly make "The next big MMO or game" it will take going in the direction of the long-promised virtual reality platform even though that idea is probably a logistical nightmare.

I don't think it's so much that we're bored with the same ole same, it's more that we're bored with W A S D and click click click.

Players on this site still confidently predict that the 'next big thing' can only be seen in rearview mirrors.

It is no wonder that companies can't find it. They like to change once in a while.

But we're scared of that, the 'change' thing.  Terrified.

We want the Next Big Thing to be Just Like WoW.  But not, you know, a clone.

dot dot dot huh?

Alternatively, it can be Just Liike Something Even Older.

Ohhhkay...

Could we send the industry any signals more mixed than these?

I don't think most adult MMOGamers like us don't get hyped up anymore, because they have already gone through the Let downs and overhyping. The younger ones though still seem too think that every new MMO is the second comming of jesus. So I guess theres a chance of it happening again.

I don't play MMO's anymore, they are all crap, and a waste of time and money. I'de rather go to the gym and pump iron with my friends, and spend time at the beach surfing

Originally posted by Tayah

I'm thinking Titan will probably be the next real big mmo release. A little off topic and I hope this isn't taken the wrong way. This piece seems heavily edited. It's more well written than Pokket's usual columns.

It's a bit edited, though there is nothing wrong with my previous columns. I write with a lot of long sentences. The average reader doesn't like long sentences. My punctuation is usually correct, though. I'll try to make more use of shorter sentences from now on.

I agree that Titan will have a lot of hype. Hell, it already does.

I'm glad to see a lot of debate on this column. I think this has been a topic circling many communities for the past few weeks. I wanted to write something on it to see what others had to say about it.

Originally posted by Topherpunch
Honestly, I wish Pokket would just stop giving us updates on games. You want a real MMO, play Darkfall: UW, you want another WoW clone, listen to Pokket.

 

Read the column. It is not an update on games, it is an update on the industry. Asking y'all where you think it is going from here, up or downhill? Was meant to make you think, not try to sell you Toy Story the MMO.

There's a lot of Darkfall comments on here. If I took the time to mention every MMO in the works, or recently released, including Darkfall, then I WOULD be giving you an update on games. I'm not here to do that. I'm here to analyze them and the industry. Game Face is where I update you.

Here's a thought:

You install the game,  create a character,  work through the game completing all the content,  then you are done until the expansion comes out.  Add in multiplayer.

That sounds like a single-player game like Baldur's Gate and not an online world.

As a community,  what do we want?  Big single-player games with multi-player support,  or online worlds?

Originally posted by Icewhite

Players on this site still confidently predict that the 'next big thing' can only be seen in rearview mirrors.

It is no wonder that companies can't find it. They like to change once in a while.

But we're scared of that, the 'change' thing.  Terrified.

We want the Next Big Thing to be Just Like WoW.  But not, you know, a clone.

dot dot dot huh?

Alternatively, it can be Just Liike Something Even Older.

Ohhhkay...

Could we send the industry any signals more mixed than these?

 

If we the consumers don't know what we want,  how can we expect the industry to read our minds?

Therefore,  as a developer,  should you try to please the consumer (community),  or follow  your own vision?

The next big mmo release is war z????? Are you kidding me?

War z isnt a real mmo lol.

Its a fps with online features. Kind of like a over sized left for dead game lol.

I think with all the crap being released this past 5+ years no one actualy knows what a mmo is anymore ;)

Originally posted by RefMinor

Originally posted by Suzie_Ford

To say that there have been some recent disappointments in highly anticipated MMOs recently might be considered an understatement.

Not according to your coverage.

^This... Are you people even playing the same games? You give amazing reviews to seriously piss poor products. I guess in this age though credibility is a non factor.

Please! The next big MMO is The Origins of Malu!

I won't lie, when I first saw the screenshots, it looked a little to WoW for me, but the dynamic faction system and the crafting system are unlike anything I've ever heard of.

Plus, there are Space Chickens!!! I love Chickens!! :D

WARz is a niche game, the next big thing? No.

There is nothing "new" out on the horizon, everything is a sequal or a rehash of a previous title. The next "big thing" will be the same as the last "big thing" a runaway hype train running at full steam into disappointment central.

Originally posted by Zinzan

WARz is a niche game, the next big thing? No.

There is nothing "new" out on the horizon, everything is a sequal or a rehash of a previous title. The next "big thing" will be the same as the last "big thing" a runaway hype train running at full steam into disappointment central.

Hey Zinzan, didn't you read me? Space Chickens!

Origins of Malu (OOM) is no rehash or sequel of anything (or anything I've ever seen). I'll admit it has artistist elements similar to Tera and WoW, but what's doesn't. I'll tell you what sets OOM apart from everything else. Whilst 90% of all MMORPGs are centered around fantasy elements and worlds i.e.: WoW, Tera, Shaiya, Age of Conan, etc. OOM is unique because its not a fantasy world. Its an ALIEN world.

All those cliche RPG settings aren't rehashed, because its all extraterrestial. It's unique.

Plus, what MMO do you know that have dynamic factioned controled areas, homes you build yourself, and 10+ players fighting over a space chicken?

I think that pic in your blog might be hitting the nail right on the head... The next big thing is already here.

What is it? Or which? i don't know, I just know I've seen some GREAT games that just 'die' for me due to intrest being murderd by what we have seen 'hyped' so much in the last year(GW2, pandas in wow, even tera is guilty)

Each game brings an aspect or two we WANT, yet fails so hardcore in every other area so badly. Tera has amazing combat, but the game itself is dull, boring, and after 60 your stuck looking at 2-3 dungeons and hoping (oneday) you get +12 gear to pvp properly(And until then your just fodder for the 'REEL PVPERS')

GW2 had a great idea with the questing/advancment system, yet that also failed due to it just 'feeling' like a slightly improved wow.

SWTOR: Wow in space. Oh and faces talk. Yay.

Wow itself, the old fart thats held the intrest of so many for so long, had to add pandas? I just don't get why, has blizzard totally lost all inspiration that they have to steal from the asian grinder market/kung-fu panda cartoon?

And aside from the above(And those I didnt mention) we have old(er) games, being run into the ground with cash shop/extremly greedy publishers(IE: STO, lockbox 'craze' as an example which can be seen in many of the f2p games), good old classics 'being shut down' for no real reasons(City of heros, which could have easily continued to make money) -

New games on the horozion don't fill many of us with confidence, not with what we have seen over the past year(or two) with games. Archage, which once really made me 'hope' for games, i've all but lost attention with it, not only because of this year of 'triple A 5 star' releases, but I think the entire mmo market is the same.

I move on to distract myself with spg's until something intrests, then try that for a week... but I have little to no hope for the future of mmo's. Sure the 'mash button A 12 times, button B 5 times' crowed will continue to be amused, and the 'Free to play but pay though the nose to compete' crowed will also be happily entertained for a good time to come, but I'l happy spendng my 60 bucks and enjoying a game for a month or so.(And always come back to it when I want, without paying again)

The biggest thing I miss with MMO's is the community. But even that I find lacking these days. (you all have met them, some of you ARE them, you know the type: Either derpderp thier way though a game dragging everyone else down with them, or the other end of the scale, the guy whos screaming into his mic because you don't have a sword of amazing ultra smashingness +15 and therefore are a stupid noob)

Originally posted by Cheanlenu

(Alot of ideas about AI)

The sad fact is, that for it to work in a SINGLE PLAYER game, you need a VAST amount of CPU useage. Lets just take the sims as an example, who have a extremly simple AI, to the point they are pretty much little more than drooling retards who babble at eachother in gibberish. The amount of cpu use this game takes, even with only a few sims onscreen, is huge compared, to compare, a game like skyrim or crysis. With scritped responses (IE input A< get result B, Input C get result D) you do not need any computing power, but to give a program a 'choice' (Which isnt really a choice either, but more of a HUGE list of the above with randomized values that are adjusted by events/circumstances relevent to the subject) which can easily bog down even a i7.

We not talking graphics, because the two are totally diffrent. To have 'true AI' the server would (Just to compute the reactions of a select FEW npc's for ONE player) have to be a freaking supercomputer. Forget the idea of computing the AI responses of tens of thousands of playes, and forget the idea of any of these 'reactions' being in a resonable amount of time.

AI idea is great, but it just will not happen. Ever.

Again repeating myself: I DO NOT GIVE A DAMN FOR INNOVATION OF ANY KIND! I do not care if mmo allows me to solo whole content, actually love that.

What I want to play is FUN game.

And I do not care even minimally if Blizzard itself make wow clone, if all games on the world would be wow clones ... as long as they are FUN. Wow is fun, swtor is fun, rift, gw2, .... there are also games that were fun for limited time, like aoc, war, co, ...

And there are terrible unfun, boring games, like gw1, TR, Rappelz, .... But out there are people that have completely different view about this. 

What should be mondatory, companies should stop thinking success is if they sell and have millions and millions of regular players. Success is also having 100.000 active players or even half this as long as developers expenses, salaries, ... can cope with this.

I'm absolutely positive not even Blizzard itself will be ever able to repeat success of wow. They did the right thing at right time. Now wow is cult game. I guess will playing it for decades if happen so. After all alts have leveled game is still fresh for me. Less fresh then years ago, but still very live.