While it is cool that players are keen on trying new things, it would appear that the most popular MMOs have managed to persist simply by staying consistent with what they excel at. As a matter, with World of Warcraft nearing its 20-year anniversary, you do have to wonder what exactly innovation really entails in online gaming.
The standardized formulas
An attempt was made throughout the years to come up with the "sequel versions" of various online games. The thing is, in most cases, these changes did not come out as expected. Since WoW is one of the longest-running MMORPGs, it can be taken as an excellent example of evolutionary change rather than revolutionary change.
And so when our friends at GamesRadar asked whether a new beginning of some sort was on the horizon, the Game Director Ion Hazzikostas said, "Theoretically, at some long, distant point down the line, that may be a question we grapple with seriously," before pointing out that right at this moment, they're still all about taking care of their "huge, vibrant, and growing player community".
Keeping the progression
Part of the reason it's so hard to successfully pull off some dramatic change within MMOs is owing to the time and effort thrown at one's character and what he achieved. Stuff like rare items, friendships, and a lot of grinding give players a strong reason to push back against big changes that could wipe or degrade those achievements.
That leads to the thinking behind why successful MMOs make minor rather than major changes. "When we have this vibrant world full of millions of players, our priority is to keep serving them as best we can -- to keep extending those journeys, the worlds we build, and every step along the way, we are making the improvements that we think suit the modern audience best," Hazzikostas explains.
The “ship of Theseus” approach
"World of Warcraft is a little bit of a ship of Theseus of video games," says Hazzikostas, invoking that philosophical thought experiment about something which has all of its parts replaced one by one, yet somehow remains the same. According to him, this is how they make changes without crippling the core experience the players already have.
"We're constantly tearing out some old foundational system and replacing it with something that will scale to support our new server architecture, to support new graphics pipelines, to support new aspects of multiplayer interaction that the original game couldn't have imagined," Hazzikostas says. Underlying that, It's a more complex way of letting the game grow but allowing to retain much of that emotional attachment developed by the players with the world.
The risk of radical changes
Online gaming is full of those examples when a game has just changed too much, too fast. The devs tried to rework the wheel totally, they accidentally pushed their main players away, while failing to attract new ones. In reality, although players state their desire for big changes, their actions speak louder than words: players generally would much rather master the game as it is than set out to learn too different things. Such behavior may indicate that the most effective means of creating something refreshing is to include a few new features while still sticking to most of the game identity.
Interestingly in recent years these classic versions of popular online games have blown up the online gaming world, as Joseph wrote about recently. These successes prove that people are into some good, old-fashioned fun, and not all players thirst for new stuff. As Hazzikostas himself described WoW Classic, it's a "separate ecosystem", a "testament to the amount of change that's happened and the amount of evolution in World of Warcraft over this time."
The limits of iterative evolution
So, in theory, all that sounds great, but in reality, it is a little more complicated. Even with modernizing World of Warcraft through the carefully wrought changes, a large portion of its player base is increasingly alienated from the "retail" version of the game. This is so prominent that many longtime players have begun treating WoW Classic, rather than any form of nostalgic side treat, as the real version of the game they once knew and loved.
In fact, this iterative evolution, to which Hazzikostas so proudly refers as a "ship of Theseus" approach, still brings out this one huge challenge intrinsic to long-sustained online games: you can't chase innovation as if it were some kind of arbitrary concept, divorced from the emotional elements that originally drew players in. Actual evolution should preserve not just the vibe, but also the feels, and those core loops of gameplay that made it great in the first place.
Caring about the community
Perhaps one of the most overlooked aspects of MMORPG evolution is the impact of social connections and community dynamics. Unlike single-player games or casual multiplayer titles, MMORPGs build intricate social systems that can really get rocked by big changes. Guilds, old friendships, community traditions - these are what keeps a game alive, usually way more than any fancy new mechanics or graphics.
This social dimension adds a degree of complexity to the innovation equation. Successful MMORPGs have to balance not only how changes will affect gameplay, but also how those changes will affect social structures developed over years of playing. The continuation of those social bonds is often more valuable to retaining players than the introduction of new features or systems.
The future of innovation in online gaming
The success of long-running titles suggests that true innovation might be less about revolutionary changes and more about thoughtful evolution. While newer games might introduce novel mechanics or cutting-edge graphics, the enduring appeal of established online games demonstrates that player engagement relies heavily on community, consistent content delivery, and refined gameplay systems.
All the debate about how MMORPGs must revolutionize themselves somewhat overlooks the forest for the trees. Evidence would seem to support the view that successful titles do not need such a big rework but a little tender loving care. In fact, the real skill seems to be how to freshen up and enhance an experience while retaining what people fell in love with in the first place. In an industry often driven by the next big thing, it sometimes seems the most innovative approach would be to know when not to fix what isn't broken.
