I'm really looking forward to Champions Online, since closed beta is starting fairly soon.

MMOs, to me, are like a series of abusive girlfriends.  I stay with them for a while, but we eventually have a bad break-up for one reason or another, with only alot of ill will and a lighter wallet to show for it.  Afterward, I go through a withdrawl period where I alternate between wanting to go back to a game and wondering what I ever saw in it in the first place.  Sometimes I do go back to a game.  I went back to Maple Story, and then I went back to World of Warcraft, and I felt stupid each time.

But then, eventually, another hot little number comes along, and I fall for it.  I keep hoping that, maybe, this will be the game that'll finally give me the experience that will keep me coming back, and won't treat me as horribly as all the games that have come before.

So, yeah, a little tired.

Never heard of it.

There are two approaches that could, potentially, work well for MMO Developers.  The first is to make a better WoW, from top to bottom, as shown here.  It can work, particularly being that WoW isn't exactly a spring chicken, but it will take a great deal of dedication and effort and, of course, money, put into the project to make the game what it needs to be.

The second option is the exact opposite.  Offer something that is so far from WoW that links between the two can only barely be made.  This isn't just a change in setting or a mild tweak to the gameplay mechanics, or even adding in a couple of new features.  This is a total shift in direction, creating a game that, likely, would attract WoW gamers and other MMO players as a second game, a change of pace from the title they're playing most often at that time (which, more often then not, is WoW).

This sort of thing comes up every so often.  An MMO that plays like Dynasty Warriors, or Ninja Gaiden, or Devil May Cry, would definitely be loads of fun to play.  The main reason given that this isn't possible to do is latency, or rather, the fact that most computers aren't powerful and don't have internet connections speedy enough to allow a great number of players to play a game of this magnitude.

A game like this would be great, and would likely put a dent in the WoW monolith if not surpass it altogether.  But the technology to make it work simply doesn't exist at this time.

I've only ever seen two online fighting games.  One was KwanHo, which was a very interesting game although it had some serious issues in beta.  ijji likely cancelled it because those issues were a pain in the neck to fix.

The other game is Rumble Fighters, which is... well, it's basically what happens when Power Stone is made into an online fighter.  It's 3D, arena-based combat with various fighting styles and some frightfully generic anime visuals.  Not my kind of game, honestly, but it might be worth a look if you're desperate to punch some faces.

Any at all?

I regret it.  I really, really do.

I've been hopping between F2P games recently, and I've begun to notice that I tend to get chased off by trashy communities.  Goldsellers and hackers and n00bs and the like.  So I'd like to try to find something smaller, less well-known, with a fairly good community.  The game mechanics don't really matter much at this point, I'm pretty flexable in that regard.

Any suggestions?

Originally posted by TristamIzumi

If I'm going to stare at a pixelated ass for hours on end, I might as well make it a "female" ass.

This, particularly in City of Heroes.  Some of the guys have the Flanders' Skisuit deal going on, what with all the Spandex, so I tend to play women more often.  My main is a guy though, a big hulking Brute of a character.  I don't really bother with acting like a female though, since I tend to be a little clueless about how they act to begin with.  I play them like I play any other character of a given class.

Nobody plays "IRL" anymore, not since the game economy went down the crapper.  The population is nothing to write home about either.  And don't even get me started on the mods in "IRL".

As for the topic, I would be all for a Western MMO.  It seems to be one of those unexplored territories for MMORPGs, and there's gold to be found in them thar hills.

...I have no idea what game you're talking about.

I actually am open to copying ideas, or at least doing things similarly, so long as those similar things are done at a similar or greater quality.  Quality seems to be an issue for the copying parties, unfortunately.  Eragon, for instance.

Back when I was playing it, the second-highest population on City of Heroes was on it's unofficial RP server, Virtue.  It was a surprisingly interesting and diverse community.

I decided to finally give Dofus a try because of this topic, and it's not a bad game at all.  I do wish that it didn't have such harsh XP penelties for teaming, though.

Well it's obvious what the problem was.  Gurren Lagann is too epic for the current technology of the MMO landscape, and the backlash of awesomeness caused drills to plow through the player's screens.  It will be years, perhaps decades, before the technology exists to create a game of such magnitude.

I really enjoyed the combat in City of Heroes.  The concept of that combat being even more twitch-based and packed with action is the main reaston that Champions Online has me so excited.

Given what WoW is offering currently, any newer release that is even moderately similar is not going to outdo them.  Players who want WoW are going to play WoW.  Players who don't want WoW aren't going to want a game that's a similar, but lesser, WoW.  However, offering something that's very, very different from WoW will give you a better shot at getting a market that WoW is not currently soaking up.

Though, that's pretty much what the OP said.

I have a very simple point of view when it comes to MMOs and gaming in general.  I play games because they're fun.  As such, I don't feel inclined to play a game if the game isn't fun.  It's why I tend to leave games once they become a grind, because grinds don't tend to be enjoyable.  Games with creation and customization aspects to fiddle around with are a nice distraction and may hold my attention longer, but at the end of the day if a game isn't a joy to play then I'm not going to stick around long.  It's why I've never cracked level 15 on WoW, and why I drop most free-to-play games after a week or less.

Since we're on the subject, there was a driving MMO a long time ago that was based on building and driving classic muscle cars.  Motor City Online may have been the title.  Never got to play it myself, and I never hear about it, so I'm not sure what happened with it.