i ve often wondered if consoles may offer the next big jump forward for the mmo market given they are slowly increasing in the numbers of players in thier multiplayer mode. it sometimes seams the next logical step forward may be the mmorpg . i m not sure how well the likes of the ps3 and xbox360 would be able to handle such a thing but i m pretty certain thier successors will be able to. so maybe in 3 years time the wowkiller may not be a pc game at all . not everyone has a great gaming pc but a console is a standardised format . he game experiance on one machine will be the same as another . so what do you think ?

Next gen console will most likely be cheap Wii imitations.

OH, if there is a fucking god i hope they dont allow anyone to make an MMO for a console they have had two and imo they sucked MMOs are meant for the pc only! thats the way the MMO gods have written it! lawl

I think they will, there has been a lot of talk from many MMO developer and publishers about porting MMOs to  consoles.  Sony will have DC Universe, The Agency and Free Reams on the PS3 and XBOX 360 will have Champions Online, Age of Conan, and APB. Plus Cryptic Studio has hinted at Star Trek Online being on both PS3 and XBOX 360, but nothing official. Plus LucasArts and Bioware are looking at the same possibility for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I think the big question will be. Not will they be on the console, but more will PC gamers and Console gamers be able to play on the same servers.

As for what the second posted said about Wii imitations in next gen consoles, I seriously don't it. Wii is a passing fad, its nothing more than a toy(Like the Tickle Me Elmo, Teddy Ruxpin, or the Cabbage Patch Kids.) . Most people who buy it aren't serious gamers and they play it a little, then it sits on a shelf collecting dust. Where as the 360 and the PS3 are used by people who play a lot of game and spend a lot of time playing them. I see Nintendo getting back to their roots in the next gen. Yes the Wii is making them money, but it won't in the long run and they need to start think long term.

Well that was just my two cents, you can take it or leave it.

Originally posted by purewitz

I think they will, there has been a lot of talk from many MMO developer and publishers about porting MMOs to  consoles.  Sony will have DC Universe, The Agency and Free Reams on the PS3 and XBOX 360 will have Champions Online, Age of Conan, and APB. Plus Cryptic Studio has hinted at Star Trek Online being on both PS3 and XBOX 360, but nothing official. Plus LucasArts and Bioware are looking at the same possibility for Star Wars: The Old Republic. I think the big question will be. Not will they be on the console, but more will PC gamers and Console gamers be able to play on the same servers.

 

As for what the second posted said about Wii imitations in next gen consoles, I seriously don't it. Wii is a passing fad, its nothing more than a toy(Like the Tickle Me Elmo, Teddy Ruxpin, or the Cabbage Patch Kids.) . Most people who buy it aren't serious gamers and they play it a little, then it sits on a shelf collecting dust. Where as the 360 and the PS3 are used by people who play a lot of game and spend a lot of time playing them. I see Nintendo getting back to their roots in the next gen. Yes the Wii is making them money, but it won't in the long run and they need to start think long term.

Well that was just my two cents, you can take it or leave it.

Dude if a developer did make an MMO for a console, i hope that its PC Gamers and Console Gamers dont play on the same server's that would be hell, PC Gamers and Console Gamers are so fucking different, the reason Console Gamers dont play PC Games is because they have know idea what the fuck to do with a fucking computer except to check their email and myspace/facebook, half of them prolly dont even know what RAM stands for.

They will and they will suck, but devs will make more money and that's just the way it will be.

Oh, sure they will come out for the PC as well, but they will be made for the console, so you'll have as many skill as you can work with a controller.

(Keep in mind I'm not a WoW fan) Blizzard will be one of the last companies making games for the PC,  you got to give them credit for that.

NO! I'm sorry, I know consoles are trying to be like PCs (ironic considering wasn't the point of the console to be a proprietary gaming system that was less complicated than the PC?) with their own little RTS attempts and such, but really, while FFXI does squeek by, consoles really do not lend themselves to MMOs. While it could happen, you would end up with something even more watered down than what we're seeing right now. Even FFXI which has done a fairly good job at it, has pretty much done so at the expense of the PC version as the interface is nigh unsuable and it's forced into console limitations graphically due to lack of support. (hooray max LOD being that of the PS2) 

Basically what I'm getting at is, FFXI has proved it can be done, but SHOULD it be done? Probably not. The biggest choke on console MMOs is that it's stuck on the hardware it starts on forever. Even if it branches out to a "next gen" system, it has to continue to support the last gen, or screw everyone over. So it will always have some technical limitation it will be stuck with. With PC+console MMOs, you end up with an even worse issue as the PC version ends up being held back and watered down horribly to accomodate and make sure everything runs fine for the console players.

I reckon a future of mmos does lie in consoles. I mean with the increase in popularity of things like Xbox live and now this upcoming Home (unless it's been released?) it stands that mmos (extended multiplayer) would be a viable genre for consoles. The only problem is customizing the genre for the console; I mean like you've got a multitude of skills on the PC that would be a bit tricky on the console, text chat would probably have to be more voice chat (most people not likely having a keyboard?) and other stuff. I can just see people doing dungeon crawls multiplayer on their console. Logical extension to simply multiplayer fps' options.

Originally posted by Knived11

half of them prolly dont even know what RAM stands for.

I would bet good money that 99.999% of the current MMO population don't know what RAM stands for anyways.

I don't think the future of MMOs are in consoles, mostly because there are too many factors to consider, especially when mixing players from different mediums (e.g. console and PC players on the same server). PC players will always have an advantage over console in the freedom of resources available to them (such as the Internet fan sites, third-party programs, etc), and it's not something that can be overcome by console games.

The only way I could see console MMOs becoming "big time" is if the very nature of consoles changes drastically to the point where they are essentially smaller PCs.

Consoles are basically small PC's now. There's very little hardware difference.

I actually hope that they do. I hate PC's,

I really hope mmo's stay PC. I don't hate consoles, but playing a MMO on a console would be just too much fuzz. With inventory windows and typing messages (sometimes you dont feel like voice chatting) etc.

I think a balance of both is a great thing, personally.

I haven't owned a console since an old Genesis, and feel no reason to ever go back to one once falling in love with PC gaming so, so many years ago. Technical issues and questions aside, (which I agree with Waterlilly about - consoles and PC hardware is closing the gap for the intended purpose of gaming, anyway) I tend to feel companies that have an effective playerbase from different methods can do some great things in the genre in the future.

Let's say, oh, 'World of Googjoob7' is released tomorrow on PC, 360, AND PS3. The gameplay mechanics and content are something that take the community by storm, and overall, response to the game has been favorable. Revenues stream in and that extra cashflow coming from all platforms cause them to not only recover development, server, and staff costs, but there's a bit of profit. Now, they tap users and feedback from a larger pool of players and with the ability to attempt some new, interesting content, a possible new and exciting direction of MMO games is given to users, and the time of enthusiasts tot he MMO genre is branched even further.

Okay. It's a silly hypothetical scenario, but in the end, gamers are gamers. Some people use gamepads, some use Mouse and board. Increased exposure and accessability can only mean good things.

And before anyone says 'Ah, but the console gamers are SO immature and would RUIN(DOOM!(TM)) our precious community....

... So yeah. Anyone ever play WoW here?

'xactly.

K~

I'm not a fan of all the UI customisation which leads to macroing, botting, and basically just cheating.

I like the fact that with a console pretty much everyone is using the same hardware.

I've played MMOs on PCs for years, but I'll change in a second if a console game offers a more level playing field than the current one. Basically I'll move to whever there are fewer cheats and botters.

The biggest issue for me would be voice.  No why in hell do I want to be in a room with 2000 people all talking at once.  I don't even like using vent, I want to play a role, not myself.  Using real voice really kills that for me.

If there was a keyboard requirment I would be fine with it.

But you still have the issue of limited resources - MMOs are huge, there would be big harddrive requirements.

Consoles are adding support for Mouse and Keyboard. That's why console games are usually so dumbed down, because you can only do so much with a controller.

Once you add a mouse and keyboard, the consoles are pretty much just an underpowered PC, so really won't matter which platform you make hte game for.

Originally posted by Ihmotepp 

 Once you add a mouse and keyboard, the consoles are pretty much just an underpowered PC, so really won't matter which platform you make hte game for.

I wouldn't say "underpowered" .. not when you look at some of the crappeh old PCs that WoW can run on, consoles are light-years ahead. I would say simplified and standardized.

Which when you think about it, should be great news for game developers. I can only imagine an upside for developing on a platform that doesn't have hundreds of potential idiosynchracities caused by conflicts between separate pieces of hardware/software.

If consoles do start to support the mouse+board as game controllers and move into more complex genres like MMOs .. I could easily imagine that PC gaming would take a severe popularity hit.

I'd be the first to jump ship at the prospect.

I hope so.

My PS3 is basically a computer anyway. It has the power and potential to host MMO games as well as having blu-ray so size isnt a factor and its mouse and keyboard friendly as wel as offering a keyboard that attaches to the controller if you prefer.

I think the PS3 at least will bring good MMO gaming to the console market.

yes, in the future most games will be dual platform. Example: Champions Online,DC Universe,Star wars: The old republic (i think)  will all be dual platformed Games. I don't think PC players and Console players will be on the same server though. There is a large market of console gamers and its only prudent that MMO companies start tapping into that cash flow.

The current trend in MMO's is away from player driven communities in an open world environment to storyline driven, heavily instanced environements. That being the case, yes they will be on consoles. In fact I wouldn't be surprised if the move to the storyline driven, heavily instanced environment was done more by game companies hoping to increase their customer base by broadening out on to consoles than an actual desire by their customers.