I am curious about what people think will happen in the future of the genre so I have presented several questions below. Feel free to answer any, all or any number of questions you wish or anything related I didn't mention.

Will they stay roughly the same with the odd change happening here and there? or will they change dramatically?

Will they integrate new peripherals such as the emerging virtual reality systems?

Will a few mass appealing games continue to dominate ? or will the MMO players have more choices and consequently scatter across several niches?

Will the cost of producing them keep spiraling out of control? or will new technologies make them cheaper to produce?

What effects will crowdfunding have on the genre?

Will MMOs even continue to survive with the current populations? or will growing genres such as social and mobile games make them endangered?

What do people expect from the future from MMOs?

Here's what I expect:

Action third person combat with automatic targeting

Race specific "personal" storylines with character as hero, including extensive use of instancing / phasing

Rush to cap then raid or PVP

Average time where a player stays with a game at three months

An increase in games called sandbox by the developer, that are themepark-sandbox hybrids with focus on PVP

MMOFPS / MOBA hybrids called MMOs but with gameplay similar to Halo

Fast F2P conversion for the few games that do open as subscription games

One from the list.  I do see production costs staying extremely high.  The sheer bulk of artwork needed to meet player expectations on "graphics" (their term not mine) will keep costs up.  Along with short longevity, I see this making MMORPG development extremely risky as an investment.  In turn this puts more pressure on crowd funding, which I expect to have a terrible reputation in 2 to 3 years because of funded projects that fail and bankrupt producing nothing.

Honestly I don't believe there will be anything revolutionary.

There will be an evolution. More games to choose from, more styles (scifi, real life, more RPG centric, FPS centric, perhaps even sports mmos? etc)

But nothing big that will shake the MMO world. I don't think there are hidden treasures in the MMO world.

I expect the next generation of MMo to have more player made content. Look at the popularity of Minecraft, and now the upcoming Neverwinter which allow players to build dungeons. Look at how popular the Player housing feature has been these last 8 years. It's been the number one most requested feature in a MMO IMO.

now imagine a game that gives players the type of content making elements of a limited game engine.

Originally posted by ozmono

I am curious about what people think will happen in the future of the genre so I have presented several questions below. Feel free to answer any, all or any number of questions you wish or anything related I didn't mention.

 

Will they stay roughly the same with the odd change happening here and there? or will they change dramatically?

Sadly, they probably will stay status quo for the time being until someone is daring and retain the ability to make development decisions without outside influence i.e. publishers and investors. It will eventually make a drastic change, just not anytime soon.

 

Will they integrate new peripherals such as the emerging virtual reality systems?

Not likely anytime soon. Most of this stuff is still pretty clunky and needs a few more years of fleshing out before it becomes intregrated into something as complex as MMOs.

 

Will a few mass appealing games continue to dominate ? or will the MMO players have more choices and consequently scatter across several niches?

Big named studios will still continue to hold the largest audience due mostly to the sheep mentality of a lot of buyers. Some smaller studios will though begin to spread players out a bit. Those who have been playing for a really long time and are looking for a more defined variation will tend to seek out more specialized games that fit their tastes.

 

Will the cost of producing them keep spiraling out of control? or will new technologies make them cheaper to produce?

Yes and No. New technology generally allows developers to go places they never could before and therefore they continue to push the envelope which in turn keeps the costs up.

What effects will crowdfunding have on the genre?

 It won't have a major impact, but it will allow many independent studios to accomplish far more than they could before. And that is a good thing as usually it is the independents who generally come up with the really original ideas that the big boys steal and refine it and make it work so well.

Will MMOs even continue to survive with the current populations? or will growing genres such as social and mobile games make them endangered?

MMOs aren't going anywhere. Studios will begin to curb the costs and producing MMOs. It will be pretty rare to see 250 million dollar projects anymore. Truth be told, that amount of money isn't necessary to make a really good AAA MMO. Most MMOs can survive quite easily with 500K-1M subs.

 

What do people expect from the future from MMOs?

I think we got a few more years of gimmicky features put into MMOs and studios thinking this will be enough to bring in and hold players. In time though, someone will break the mold or will come really close and then someone wiull follow up and make a big change that will change how games are made and played. How long? Who can say. As long  as the people with money are still filling their pockets with rehashed material, it may take awhile.

I expect more integration into social media. People are bound and determined to keep using it. I tell you though, if it gets to the point where you need a facebook login to join a game - I'm out of this hobby altogether.

I see more indie companies ramping up aided by crowd funding and web browsers becoming more capable. We already have tons of people in web dev that would switch over to gaming. So many in web dev only care about graphics anyway and couldn't code their way out of a paper bag, someone will make them a framework to play with and it's off to town they'll go.

I do see more browser games in the future, people keep buying devices but I don't see them as something I personally would switch to. Everyone around me has devices though so I'm not blind to it.

Because of the smaller screen spaces on smaller devices I foresee some of the older looks coming back. This would be aided by indie folks involved.

I think people will have to learn to be more accepting of smaller population games. There are so many being made now at some point with the addition of indies, it's going to be nutty.

I don't see WOW dying soon or many other sub games. I think the more and more games that come out free they will keep the numbers low for the games that are sub making an automatic scarcity for them. People always want bulk plans and group rates, I just can't see everything going micro-transaction. If it did I think it would be like Walmart - they have low prices but only because they make them low. I knew a buyer for them and she would tell people she was bargaining with "You don't understand, we are Walmart, we buy it for x or you don't sell in our store. I don't care what you sell it to other people for." . After our conversations we both came to the conclusion that once Walmart is the only store, they can't do that any longer. Then they are at the mercy of the producers again. One store can open up and become exclusive wiping them off the map but right now all the grocery stores aren't organized enough to help each other or have any interest in it. They have been enemies for too many years.

I see more MMOs being made to suit the aging generation. The 30 year olds will be 40 and might not stick with the games if they can't have shortened play times. Different segments of people can game different hours.

I see more NPC henchman and sidekicks implemented. If they only run on the server with one player, only that player needs feedback about what they are doing and they don't care at all about what the player is doing unless there is an order. I think those henchman will replace many of the freeloaders that won't ever pay for games. Say each player had 2 henchman, that's 2 less players that need network messages each time there is a group battle, that could add up. All they really need to do is send their attacks, they don't need much in terms of UI information, they would attack until the creature is dead or ordered to halt. Oh, and I think they will have cutesy or morbid catchphrases so that you are running with a personal entertainer but not annoying like the paperclip became in MS Office. They would be the new /dance showing off what your creature has learned in videos. Robot buddies in a way.

In the super future I foresee free games getting wise and marking IP addresses that don't pay and blacklisting them. That way they can put less pay to win items in the shop and really make it about paying less if you play less but narrowing down who is going to pay. Keeping them around will be important, finding ways to extricate the dead weight will be as important. The big spenders are going to die out and this is the way free games will try to recover by molding their playerbase.

If they do start tagging IP addresses as dead weight, I expect they will sell the lists to each other and there may be a company that would step in and maintain those blacklists for them - for a nice fee. They may even be interested in handling all authentication for all games -  like an openid.  In time, someone would need to start using proxies to access games because they would have burned entire blocks. People with new services may need to identify themselves but their computer specs help solve that too. It's not like the only thing you can get from a computer is the IP address.

I think greenreen is spot on in a lot of her assessments. On the social media part, I genuinely thought that would have kicked in years ago, but the disheartening trend lately has seemed to be zero risk taking in the western market, only venturinginto new waters once it's been proven to work on the other side of the globe.

In a way, the next era is here, and it's in the form of MMOs made for everyone but the average MMO gamer. Wizard 101, Clone Wars Adventures, Free Realms and many of the social worlds (IMVU, Kaneva, Smallwrolds, etc) have proven very successful in the past few years. It's also here in the form of catering to the eastern audience, a very different consumer base than the NA/EU audience.

The Diku-style MMORPG will still be around for years to come, but MMO as a platform has already evolved passed the EQ/WOW crowd in features and gameplay.

The next era is here. The people clinging to what a 'true' MMO 'should be' are just not part of it.

It would help to know what young teens up to people in their 20s are looking for in an MMO. I don't know.

Eventually I think large AAA MMOs will wind down and become less common. More popularity and success will come from smaller, focused crowdfunded MMOs.

Originally posted by mmoguy43

It would help to know what young teens up to people in their 20s are looking for in an MMO. I don't know.

 

Eventually I think large AAA MMOs will wind down and become less common. More popularity and success will come from smaller, focused crowdfunded MMOs.

looking for something that isnt a grind.

I can see why GW2 hype was huge off the no grind concept. but was misleading as we know today.

Originally posted by ozmono

I am curious about what people think will happen in the future of the genre so I have presented several questions below. Feel free to answer any, all or any number of questions you wish or anything related I didn't mention.

 

Will they stay roughly the same with the odd change happening here and there? or will they change dramatically? Not by western companies outside of Blizzard which is no longer under the thumb of a corporate entity. Too many are locked into old ways of thinking as can be seen by TESO and Camelot Unchained, just rehashing old limited base gameplay with a few bells and whistles thrown in to distract from that fact. Korea is the place new ideas are coming from and they have the money to continue pushing it.

 

Will they integrate new peripherals such as the emerging virtual reality systems? Not for many more years, but the game should become more photo realistic as systems become stronger.

 

Will a few mass appealing games continue to dominate ? or will the MMO players have more choices and consequently scatter across several niches? There are many niches now, the genre is played by over 20 million people around the world so there will always be niche games...just have to worry about those being made to target a small niche(camelot unchained) because it shows a limited vision which leads to a limited future.

 

Will the cost of producing them keep spiraling out of control? or will new technologies make them cheaper to produce? Its only spiraling out of control in the corporate made games because they are all trying to top WoW instead of just making a good game.

 

What effects will crowdfunding have on the genre? Little in the short term but it may give a company a chance to make a game that will make them enough money to make another better game that will have an imact.

 

Will MMOs even continue to survive with the current populations? or will growing genres such as social and mobile games make them endangered? Not a chance, mobile gaming has no impact at all on PC MMOs outside of it may perhaps get these corporations posioning the PC MMO market to stop making them and target the larger mobile game market.

 What do people expect from the future from MMOs? to stop making limited games and start putting the RP back in RPG.

I suspect that current trends will continue for the next five to ten years, especially in NA.  Long term? I suspect its a matter of technology.  If/when the current middleware systems evolve so that large numbers of people are no longer required to create these games, then we may see some real changes.

http://www.heroengine.com/herocloud/

http://www.bigworldtech.com/

Those are just two of the current systems. Over time they will evolve even further.  Quality content is, and will likely remain the most expensive part of these games.  But given advances in procedurally generated content (and beyond that advances in general AI), that too can be dealt with.  One approach is this,

http://pcg.wikidot.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procedural_generation

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/181853/5_tips_for_using_procedurallygenerated_content_in_your_game.php

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_intelligence

Crowd sourcing has some promise (short to mid term), but if it continues to expand, it will eventually end up choked by government regulation (to "protect" people of course...).   Side stepping the investment types will only be tolerated as long as the money involved is minor.  Once its no longer minor, the investors politicians will see that it doesn't become a source of effective competition.

One of the current bottlenecks is the major investment (of other peoples money) thats required to create these games.  That means that many of the important decisions get made by suits, rather than Dev's.  Suits tend to be quite risk adverse, which results in a lot of Me Too type projects (as we've seen over the years).

Originally posted by ozmono

I am curious about what people think will happen in the future of the genre so I have presented several questions below. Feel free to answer any, all or any number of questions you wish or anything related I didn't mention.

 

Will they stay roughly the same with the odd change happening here and there? or will they change dramatically?

In about a year, im going to say it will be pretty much the same. 3 years from now I can see the pay to play model being used even less then it is now. I can also see more sandbox MMOs being available. I think kickstarter may help a bit with this genre since it allows the possiblity for new developers to rise and put out their ideas.

 

Will they integrate new peripherals such as the emerging virtual reality systems?

I actually find it pretty funny how some people act like this technology is no where around or that it's bulky. If you look at some videos of CES the Oculus Rift stole the show. It's the developers version and it's not bulky at all. The consumer version should be out with in a year or 2. I can almost most certainly see this being used in MMOs. The developer versions where sent out this month, and I know nearly all developers who saw it wanedt to work with it.

If anything needs to be worked on for Virtual Reality, it's the control schemes. 

I am going to give it 2 - 4 years before we see an MMO emerge that uses this. 

 

Will a few mass appealing games continue to dominate ? or will the MMO players have more choices and consequently scatter across several niches?

More choices. This is actually what I been hearing from developers. It's one of the reasons they are looking into the Free to Play model. Free to play games don't need large numbers to make money. They only need a small group of big spenders. Not many people realise this, but a good example would be Nexon with their game Mabinogi. A few people on the forums decided to start talking about how much money they have spent since playing, and some spent well over $4,000 in a 3 - 5 year span. Nearly everyone who posted spent at least $1,000. It just goes to show you what players are willing to spend for a game they really enjoy. I have spent close to $500 on that game since the 5 years of playing it.

 

Will the cost of producing them keep spiraling out of control? or will new technologies make them cheaper to produce?

 

New technologies always make things cheaper in the long run. It's just a matter of time.

What effects will crowdfunding have on the genre?

 

As I have said above, it's likely to help new ideas get out there. We will probably see more sandbox titles emerge.

Will MMOs even continue to survive with the current populations? or will growing genres such as social and mobile games make them endangered?

 

Actually, if I remember correctly, spacetime studios has a few MMOs out on the mobile market that are very popular.

What do people expect from the future from MMOs?

Everyone expects something different. If developers are correct, hopefully there will be something for everyone.

If you want to see the future, check out Star Citizen, Elite and World of Darkness. Maybe EQ Next as well, but not sure how revolutionary it will be.

And there is the mystery title "Titan" by Blizzard. Who knows what that will be.

Everything else that is coming up is just a rehash of old concepts, with improved graphics and 10 GIGs of voiceovers.

Originally posted by FromHell

If you want to see the future, check out Star Citizen, Elite and World of Darkness. Maybe EQ Next as well, but not sure how revolutionary it will be.

And there is the mystery title "Titan" by Blizzard. Who knows what that will be.

 

 

Everything else that is coming up is just a rehash of old concepts, with improved graphics and 10 GIGs of voiceovers.

While I love the concept of Elite and Star Citizen and am a supporter of CCP I gotta say the future of MMOs, the real future will be in the hands of people like the guys making http://albiononline.com/the-game/ because for them MMOs are a labour of love first and foremost, profit is not in their mindsets but love of the medium itself.

Originally posted by ozmono

I am curious about what people think will happen in the future of the genre so I have presented several questions below. Feel free to answer any, all or any number of questions you wish or anything related I didn't mention.

 

Will they stay roughly the same with the odd change happening here and there? or will they change dramatically?

I think they will stay roughly the same, I somehow do not expect a revolution in MMO anytime soon. I think many people want a more sandbox experience and more freedom though.

 

Will they integrate new peripherals such as the emerging virtual reality systems?

I don't think so because it is so costly I heard.

 

Will a few mass appealing games continue to dominate ? or will the MMO players have more choices and consequently scatter across several niches?

 A few games will always dominate I think.

Will the cost of producing them keep spiraling out of control? or will new technologies make them cheaper to produce?

 I think they will keep spiraling out of control like the movies do, people want better and better graphics, music, animation, performance. etc.

What effects will crowdfunding have on the genre?

Maybe they will allow some games to be released that would have never been possible in the past.

 Will MMOs even continue to survive with the current populations? or will growing genres such as social and mobile games make them endangered?

PC gaming has taken a hit from mobile gaming I am sure, but more and more people have access to PC than ever before so it evens out a bit I feel.

 

Originally posted by jazz.be

Honestly I don't believe there will be anything revolutionary.

There will be an evolution. More games to choose from, more styles (scifi, real life, more RPG centric, FPS centric, perhaps even sports mmos? etc)

But nothing big that will shake the MMO world. I don't think there are hidden treasures in the MMO world.

^

I am expected (by the regular grumps) to predict an Anti-WoW Lashback Revolution, but I really don't see that coming.

I do, in fact, predict that will be the upcoming Marketing approach, possibly for several years...but talk's cheap, particularly marketing talk. Earlier this year they were trending towards the Sandbox bullets. This month, apparently, it's the DAoC bullets. Next month? Pull bullets from Asheron's Call?

Originally posted by ozmono

Will they stay roughly the same with the odd change happening here and there? or will they change dramatically?

I expect MMOs to change a lot less than other genres over the next 5 years. Publishers will maintain a vice-grip on this genre and remain resistant to the changes and progress that's bubbling now.

Originally posted by ozmono

Will they integrate new peripherals such as the emerging virtual reality systems?

The Oculus Rift will see widespread support rapidly following its consumer launch, with nearly any game that has a first-person perspective. The first-person shooter, first-person adventure, and first-person roleplaying genres will be the most affected by the device, but MMOs should be no slouch. Although MMOs don't frequently have first-person views (and when they do, they tend to suck), I think the existence and popularity of the Oculus Rift will change that.

I suspect that the two major companies spearheading OR support in MMOs will be SOE and CCP—although two very different groups targeting very different markets, I think they have the best-demonstrated interest in this sort of thing, especially in the case of CCP's eagerness to jump on new technology.

I don't think any MMOs will be designed for (that is to say require) the Oculus Rift, though. The only reason I can see for that would be for balancing purposes in an MMOFPS, but I think the OR will not see adoption in MMOFPSs (or any multiplayer FPS) for exactly that reason: the OR would feel terrible without detached aiming, and detached aiming would seriously disadvantage anyone without the OR.

Originally posted by ozmono

Will a few mass appealing games continue to dominate ? or will the MMO players have more choices and consequently scatter across several niches?

In what timeframe? I think WoW will still top the charts in 5 years, despite being quite the dinosaur. In about 8 years, though, I seriously doubt it, and I don't expect that referring to MMOs as a current genre will make much sense in about 12 years. Everything will be online, about half of it will be multiplayer, and the type of gameplay WoW and other current MMOs offer will, itself, be a niche. Within 26 years, the genre will be irrelevant. It'll be akin to how MUDs were so suddenly eclipsed by MMOs. That bigger fish is going to be hungry.

Originally posted by ozmono

Will the cost of producing them keep spiraling out of control? or will new technologies make them cheaper to produce?

It'll be the same way these things always go. Developing something state-of-the-art will always be prohibitively expensive, but what's state-of-the-art now will be peanuts shortly.

Originally posted by ozmono

What effects will crowdfunding have on the genre?

Again, much less than other genres. I view it as a renaissance for gaming in general, where we're now able to really see where what developers want to develop overlaps with what players want to play, without publishers distorting the picture... but MMOs are just that much more expensive.

Originally posted by ozmono

Will MMOs even continue to survive with the current populations? or will growing genres such as social and mobile games make them endangered?

I think that social/mobile games will see far more change in the next 5-10 years than MMOs will, that's for damn sure, and they'll benefit massively from crowdfunding. I don't think they threaten other genres, though, or that they are the future of any genre. In fact, I think they'll be moving further and further away from them, taking the augmented reality route while others take the virtual reality route. They're often confused, but those are two very different frameworks that'll each have their own sets of genres.

Originally posted by Dihoru

Originally posted by FromHell

If you want to see the future, check out Star Citizen, Elite and World of Darkness. Maybe EQ Next as well, but not sure how revolutionary it will be.

And there is the mystery title "Titan" by Blizzard. Who knows what that will be.

Everything else that is coming up is just a rehash of old concepts, with improved graphics and 10 GIGs of voiceovers.

While I love the concept of Elite and Star Citizen and am a supporter of CCP I gotta say the future of MMOs, the real future will be in the hands of people like the guys making http://albiononline.com/the-game/ because for them MMOs are a labour of love first and foremost, profit is not in their mindsets but love of the medium itself.

On MMORPG.com we can post that MMO devs are just doing it for the money and don't love their work/project/community. Unless they're indie, of course. And even then, they only get that pass until their game is successful, then they're in the 'no love, just money' bin with the rest of the evil game companies.

On MMORPG.com we can create threads dedicated to talking about how MMO devs are deceitful liars. Unless they're indie, of course. And even then, they only get that pass until their game is successful, then they're in the 'no love, just money' bin with the rest of the evil game companies.

On MMORPG.com, we can base entire arguments on the known fact that MMO devs are lazy, uncreative non-gamers and rarely will that premise be disputed. Unless they're indie, of course. And even then, they only get that pass until their game is successful, then they're in the 'no love, just money' bin with the rest of the evil game companies.

Seems to be a pattern there.