This week, MMORPG.com's Community Manager, Laura Genender, takes a look at a blog that discusses innovation in MMORPGs.

Innovation in the Mainstream?

Day in, day out, the MMO world is filled with discontent – where is the innovation in MMOs?  Where are new ideas?  Players feel that the developers are just spitting out the same game template, day in and day out.  Almost every game is called out as a “WoW-clone” at least once (you all can argue the validity of those claims!).  And this week, user vajuras, author of the blog “I Have a Dream,” addresses this issue in his blog. 

Vajuras starts off by defining the MMO terms of “mainstream” and “innovation.”

Read the whole spotlight here.

The problem is the curent mainstream mmorpgs are all crap and flawed, just don't work for what mmorpgs should be. A mmorpg like Eve Online may not appeal to everyone because it's made for a niche but it's the direction mmorpgs need to go where the world is controlled and changed by a player, with no end game such as levels and lots of character customization.

Originally posted by KnivesOnly

The problem is the curent mainstream mmorpgs are all crap and flawed, just don't work for what mmorpgs should be. A mmorpg like Eve Online may not appeal to everyone because it's made for a niche but it's the direction mmorpgs need to go where the world is controlled and changed by a player, with no end game such as levels and lots of character customization.

I think your partly contradicting yourself here. You say EVE is made for a niche market, but the reason Mainstrem MMO's are not good is because they are "all crap and flawed". But thats the thing, EVE is viewed as great by those in that niche and the blog reinforces that the niche market is required to create quality games. It's not so much the world controlled and changed by players, no end game raiding and lots of character customization. Those qualities are found within niche market and you associate yourself with that niche. Man I have never said "niche" so many times in my life...

Originally posted by KnivesOnly

The problem is the curent mainstream mmorpgs are all crap and flawed, just don't work for what mmorpgs should be. A mmorpg like Eve Online may not appeal to everyone because it's made for a niche but it's the direction mmorpgs need to go where the world is controlled and changed by a player, with no end game such as levels and lots of character customization.

I think you should take into consideration what dev's are capable of these days. Think of the effort it takes to develop a playable MMO, then re-think your statement about all mainstream mmorpgs being crap and "flawed". of course there will be bugs, everything has little flaws/bugs. I dont think any of the gamers that constantly whine and moan about what an mmo should be understand what an MMO can be. I agree, eve is definetly pointed in the direction I would like to see MMOs go, but lots of players whine about the system/mechanics in that game as well. I whole heartedly believe there is quality in many of the mmo's reffered to as crap. You all just expect to much. You need to stop comparing MMO's to single player (console or pc) games for starters. they are in a league of their own. Game Devs can only do so much. Now i am not arguing that devs sometimes dont cut corners on things like customization, because they do, All i am saying is that a majority of you players need to get It out of your head that you are getting jerked around by game devs. Ive scoured these forums looking at what people want to see in MMos and what they dont want to see. Now i can people complaining about elements they don't want to see in a game, either certian really bad bugs or game mechanics that bother them enough to make them switch to another game. I think no matter what game you play you are going to find some little detail you dont like about it. As for things people think they should be seeing, and alot of you seem to be disgusted that you have not seen some of these ideas yet, most of you are just dreaming. Plain and simple, you say MMOs should be this way or that way, but most of the time you describe how an MMO should be, there isnt a single mmo designed today that meets a majority of your expectations. Wich says to me that it doesnt exsist yet. Either you need to wait for game dev's to catch up to your dreamscape of a game in design, or you should try finding entertainment in a different genre for a while. Oh, and to the poster that i quoted, the quote was merely for the first line, as an example of the common opinion across web boards. i gree with the later portion of your post completly 

Originally posted by Meltdown

 

Originally posted by KnivesOnly

The problem is the curent mainstream mmorpgs are all crap and flawed, just don't work for what mmorpgs should be. A mmorpg like Eve Online may not appeal to everyone because it's made for a niche but it's the direction mmorpgs need to go where the world is controlled and changed by a player, with no end game such as levels and lots of character customization.

 

I think your partly contradicting yourself here. You say EVE is made for a niche market, but the reason Mainstrem MMO's are not good is because they are "all crap and flawed". But thats the thing, EVE is viewed as great by those in that niche and the blog reinforces that the niche market is required to create quality games. It's not so much the world controlled and changed by players, no end game raiding and lots of character customization. Those qualities are found within niche market and you associate yourself with that niche. Man I have never said "niche" so many times in my life...

The next MMORPG will be one developed in a dark room tested without any if little Beta, where people can enjoy without a hype fiasco. Darkfall & HJ are my bets.

Originally posted by Deatrix

Originally posted by KnivesOnly

The problem is the curent mainstream mmorpgs are all crap and flawed, just don't work for what mmorpgs should be. A mmorpg like Eve Online may not appeal to everyone because it's made for a niche but it's the direction mmorpgs need to go where the world is controlled and changed by a player, with no end game such as levels and lots of character customization.

I think you should take into consideration what dev's are capable of these days. Think of the effort it takes to develop a playable MMO, then re-think your statement about all mainstream mmorpgs being crap and "flawed". of course there will be bugs, everything has little flaws/bugs. I dont think any of the gamers that constantly whine and moan about what an mmo should be understand what an MMO can be. I agree, eve is definetly pointed in the direction I would like to see MMOs go, but lots of players whine about the system/mechanics in that game as well. I whole heartedly believe there is quality in many of the mmo's reffered to as crap. You all just expect to much. You need to stop comparing MMO's to single player (console or pc) games for starters. they are in a league of their own. Game Devs can only do so much. Now i am not arguing that devs sometimes dont cut corners on things like customization, because they do, All i am saying is that a majority of you players need to get It out of your head that you are getting jerked around by game devs. Ive scoured these forums looking at what people want to see in MMos and what they dont want to see. Now i can people complaining about elements they don't want to see in a game, either certian really bad bugs or game mechanics that bother them enough to make them switch to another game. I think no matter what game you play you are going to find some little detail you dont like about it. As for things people think they should be seeing, and alot of you seem to be disgusted that you have not seen some of these ideas yet, most of you are just dreaming. Plain and simple, you say MMOs should be this way or that way, but most of the time you describe how an MMO should be, there isnt a single mmo designed today that meets a majority of your expectations. Wich says to me that it doesnt exsist yet. Either you need to wait for game dev's to catch up to your dreamscape of a game in design, or you should try finding entertainment in a different genre for a while. Oh, and to the poster that i quoted, the quote was merely for the first line, as an example of the common opinion across web boards. i gree with the later portion of your post completly 

General design is poor these days and concentrates too much on cosmetics, what has fueled MMORPGS are not all trhe new shoiny features but the rise of inexpensive access to the internet. Designers need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture, removing Instancing/Auction houses/Mass teleport systems/over elaborate graphics, back to basics is needed here... Invest in game systems. 

Thanks for this article it was very well written and I must concede to some of the points in it. I will have to dwell on some of the points things may vary from publisher to publisher

edit- btw I like Starport/EVE Online if anyone was wondering if I'm happy with anything haha. I listed a lot of games I'd like to tryout in my Player Run Universes blog. As you can see in my sig I'm pretty pumped about a few things in the works for various reasons . basically anything that tries something new heh