In the final of a three part series, MMORPG.com's Bill Murphy explores the Sci-Fi subgenre of MMOs and looks at what's to come for these decidedly non fantasy MMOs.

Over the past couple of weeks we've taken a look back at the past of the Science Fiction MMO and the current landscape of the subgenre. Today we delve into several of the upcoming games that look to further cement Sci-Fi's place among the traditionally fantasy-dominated industry. With a mix of both established intellectual properties and wholly new universes coming into play, the next few years are shaping up to be mighty interesting in the online gaming space. Without further adieu, let's take a look at some of the most hotly anticipated games and why we should care about them.

NetDevil's Jumpgate: Evolution has a lot of people waiting for its launch. Originally slated to be released last year, the game's now been pushed back to an undisclosed date, and some folks are even wondering if it will ever see the light of day. Despite the mystery surrounding the title's status, there is still a lot to be excited about when it comes to JGE. Reminiscent of classic PC games like Wind Commander, JGE is aiming to be a more action driven spaceflight game than the extremely popular EVE. Perhaps a wise decision to not go head to head with your main competition and instead offer a different experience in a similar arena. With multi-faction PvP and large-scale battles being touted as a core component of gameplay, one would hope the combat lives up to the potential of the setting.

Read The Sci-Fi MMO: The Future.

Man CCP has this sub-genre locked.

Lets hope BP and Funcoms next sci-fi game are good.

Good series of articles thanks.

Informative article.   I'm eager to learn more about some of the upcoming space-based games, particularly something Eve-like but not PvP focused.

The only thing I'd hoped for that the article didn't have was speculation as to what future MMOs might be able to do that they can't do now.    What kind of tech magic can we expect to see in 5, 10 or 20 years?

 I think EVE has the space genre locked down because it is such a deep and well made game. Jumpgate seems to be for the time being dead in the water and BP might have promise. However I am very interested in Earthrise and seeing what Masthead can pull off.

...yet again, not a word about Stargate: Worlds. I still hold my hopes up that the release of Stargate: Resistance will allow CME to gain enough money to continue and (one day) release Stargate: Worlds.

About DUST 514... If CCP is actually going to force me to buy an xbox360 or PS3 to get into ground battles and thus more into the game, I will cancel my account immediately. The release of DUST 514 would effectively mean that those without a console can't help their corporation to gain control of a planet. Kinda sad IMO :(

Originally posted by Reizla

...yet again, not a word about Stargate: Worlds. I still hold my hopes up that the release of Stargate: Resistance will allow CME to gain enough money to continue and (one day) release Stargate: Worlds.

About DUST 514... If CCP is actually going to force me to buy an xbox360 or PS3 to get into ground battles and thus more into the game, I will cancel my account immediately. The release of DUST 514 would effectively mean that those without a console can't help their corporation to gain control of a planet. Kinda sad IMO :(

SGW is saddled with a lot of non-game troubles that may end its development.  Do a search here and read about CME filing Chapter 11.  There are some revealing posts about how shaky the company is.

Originally posted by JYCowboy 

SGW is saddled with a lot of non-game troubles that may end its development.  Do a search here and read about CME filing Chapter 11.  There are some revealing posts about how shaky the company is.

I am aware of the Chapter 11 situation. But I keep my hopes up, and as long as they don't file Chapter 7, the game still has a possible future ;)

I know there isn't a lot of info out yet on it, BUT i think warhammer 40k stills deserves a bit of a mention just as another title coming down the tubes

Did I miss it, or did Bill really forget to mention Entropia Universe? This game is one of the most realistic MMOs in that it has no ridiculous races (as a human being, you enter the game as a human) and no classes - you can educate yourself in any or all professions, given enough time and/or money, just as in real life.

The way you can spend and make real money in this gane is also something future SciFi MMOs should look into.

It's no surprise most future titles are something different. MMO world has finally caught up with the rest of gaming with rotating genres.

When you make FPS games you make what isn't out there right now, so if everyone is playing futuristic, you make WWII. If everyone is playing WWII you make modern combat. If everyone is playing big battles with vehicles, aircraft, ships, then you make a squad based only.

MMOs up till now had only been making fantasy for the most part, now that market is as saturated as saturated can be. We've seen several big budget fantasy launches who had high initial sales but then the subs rapidly dropped off. Why? Because they realized it was like all the other fantasy titles and so they went back to their other titles.

Finally companies have caught on so we're going to get a big push for some other genres now. Once those genres are saturated and all the fantasy games are old, companies will come out with some new fantasy games and MMOs will officially be in the rotation of other games/movies/tv shows.

Remember when zombies were big business and then all but went away, and now zombies are big business. It's about time this genre played catch up.

Scifi can be divided somewhat into space combat and ground combat.  Space combat is obviously a winner with Eve.

Ground combat, however, is more difficult.  No one expects that their 40 megawatt pulse rifle will require an entire clip of pew-pew to down a stinking rat, and that's exactly why this fails so often.  I can kill rats with a BB gun for crying out loud!  Developers are hung up on recreating the original Everquest combat that has been replicated to every MMO melee combat engine.  It's not enough to bring subscribers to continue to have little numbers pop up over opponent heads.  Noobs shouldn't have to pew-pew their little fingers off to kill rats, bats, and skeletons.  If I have a rifle of any type - gauss, laser, slug, plasma, you name it - it should be one shot, one kill on yard trash and unarmored opponents.  Period.  End of story.

Also, combat needs to be more interactive and have more AI involved.  Have you ever seen a firefight on tv or in a movie?  People don't just stand there trading fire and watching the numbers light up over each others' heads.  They crouch, go prone, duck and cover, lean out from cover to fire, use cover fire from buddies to suppress enemy fire, etc.  When you get into gun based ground combat, there needs to be a lot more strategy involved than two opponents standing still and hitting each other with nerf rifles. 

This interactivity is what WoW really got wrong in WOTLK.  Occulus is an awful instance.  The reason is that Blizzard royally screwed up implementing dragon back combat.  Aerial combat should be a flowing, dynamic, strategy based, and most importantly - fun endeavor.  Instead, we sit still on our dragons and mash the attack key over and over.  I HATE occulus with a passion because it's not fun and it just plain sucks.

The need for good SciFi games are out there, I think, I know myself I am burned out on the sword and board fantasy game how many more ways can I kill an orc or swing a sword :). I tried EVE good game for what it is I just felt very limited in what I could do, I like pvp just not pvp all the time, I like well rounded games with lots of options and things to do, I think in six months or so STO will have allot more to offer, and I  want to see The Old Republic, plus keeping an eye on a few others... Bring on the SciFi..:)

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Man CCP has this sub-genre locked.

Lets hope BP and Funcoms next sci-fi game are good.

Good series of articles thanks.

That would depend on whether or not Bioware can pull off making SWTOR into a "WoW in space" subscriptions wise.

Originally posted by Grauhaar

Did I miss it, or did Bill really forget to mention Entropia Universe? This game is one of the most realistic MMOs in that it has no ridiculous races (as a human being, you enter the game as a human) and no classes - you can educate yourself in any or all professions, given enough time and/or money, just as in real life.

The way you can spend and make real money in this gane is also something future SciFi MMOs should look into.

No thank you!!

Edit: Not to mention this is a "sci-fi MMOs of the future" article. Entropia has absolutely no place in it. I believe it did get a mention in the "sci-fi MMOs in the present" article.

Our time has come my friends. No elves allowed

Looking forward to SW:TOR and JG:E. but my real hope is for Warhammer 40k mmo.....E3 can't get here soon enough.

Originally posted by Xondar123

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Man CCP has this sub-genre locked.

Lets hope BP and Funcoms next sci-fi game are good.

Good series of articles thanks.

 

That would depend on whether or not Bioware can pull off making SWTOR into a "WoW in space" subscriptions wise.

OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.

Ready?

Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.

Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.

I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.

Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.

It's not a real future unless it has Mech's in it ..

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Originally posted by Xondar123

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Man CCP has this sub-genre locked.

Lets hope BP and Funcoms next sci-fi game are good.

Good series of articles thanks.

 

That would depend on whether or not Bioware can pull off making SWTOR into a "WoW in space" subscriptions wise.

OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.

Ready?

Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.

Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.

I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.

Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.

How can you have even seen any of the gameplay when they haven't even shown any gameplay yet?

Also, "struggling" for 300K subscriptions? That's a pretty decent subscriber base actually.

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Originally posted by Xondar123

Originally posted by Rockgod99

Man CCP has this sub-genre locked.

Lets hope BP and Funcoms next sci-fi game are good.

Good series of articles thanks.

 

That would depend on whether or not Bioware can pull off making SWTOR into a "WoW in space" subscriptions wise.

OK I got my crystal ball out. I want you to come back to this post and remember exactly what Im saying to you right now.

Ready?

Six months after release TOR will struggle to even have 300k subscribers.

Got that? I've already seen enough of the gameplay to know WoW players will not stick with it and from what ive read out of the dev logs its not going to be enough of a mmo to keep the wow haters happy.

I will probably enjoy it because I love Bioware but no its not gonna do much.

Some may disagree, some may flame but just look at the combat videos and tell me wow players will mess with it for longer than 30 days.

Given that is considered a high point for subs that is pretty good.