A Future So Bright

[JoBildo]

Out With the Old and In With the New!

Stagnation is a term often associated with the videogame industry. Like movies, when a trend is caught onto, it often gets used time and again until no one ever wants to see another rehash of what started said trend ever again. It is in this way that art finds new means to express itself. The same can be said about the MMOG. For all that we love these games, there's always room for improvement. The number one item on the list? Combat.

We pull our targets sheepishly away from their blissfully ignorant comrades, whittle away at their HP with abilities triggered by the mere press of button, and then venture onto the next fiendish foe that, until we enter a certain invisible radius, is blissfully unaware of us.

This is the way of the sword (or blaster) in just about every MMORPG to date. It works well enough, but some developers and fans alike see the need to shake things up, and that’s just what we are witnessing with the batch of games on the horizon and a few that have already broken ground. The tried and true combat mechanics are being tested, reshaped, and reinvigorated by new takes on the fundamental interaction players have with a virtual world.

Read the whole article here.

But remember to come on back tell us what you think. Is it time for a change and if so, just how much is enough?

[Notleh]

I agree.

Over the last few years we have seen a few attempts at taking mmo's into a new direction...some successful and some not. DDO's quest-based leveling. Vanguard's "chunk-free" maps. EVE's single universe. Guild War's plug 'n play skills.

I think the world AOc is creating is a definite move in the right direction. When you swing your sword, it should hurt people in the arc. When you lay waste to a keep, there should be stuff leftover to re-use. When you run into someone, well you should run INTO them and not THROUGH them.

Many of the aspects of play that AoC are implementing should add to the character of the game and are a step forward in the genre.

[Keen]

The new"er" combat features that AoC will utilize sound like a very interesting next step in mmo combat evolution. That is, if they can pull it off. Failure to do so gracefully will lead AoC down the same path as Mr. Garriott's 'clean slate'.

I'm looking forward to the potential.

[Khalathwyr]

I too tend to agree on most all points. Stagnation and complacency have for a while been the province of MMO development with not only combat but all facets, unfortunately. Not only with regard to innovation, but lately we've seen even with refinement/polish, as Blizzard did so well with World of Warcraft.

Vanguard is a shining example of a AAA title that was launched far afield from a state of being polished and "ready", as far as MMOs go, to launch. It being a game with no real advances in combat makes one wonder if it took that much time to implement their crafting features (which admittedly is more detailed than most games) and diplomacy features (which, while a fun thought, to me boils down to gaining faction in a way akin to killing mobs for it) and not fully polish the rest of the game.

But that is just one game out of others that have come along since WoW. Some say that WoW was good for the genre because it brought more gamers into it and showed the suits of these companies that the genre was profittable. I can acknowledge that, but I also counter with it's success causing a large degree of stagnation caused by those same suits wanting to emulate that tasty Blizzard forumla. I can imagine many a meeting with the suits continuously asking "Is that what they did with WoW?" to the code warriors making these games.

This is changing, though, I believe. Many suits are starting to realize that they are just as foolish as those people you see on forums screaming "X game is going to be a WoW Killer". Evidence? Bobby Kotick, CEO for Activision states,

Originally Posted by Bobby Kotick

Even if we were willing to invest the $500 million it would take to just get to a standstill with Blizzard, it would result in declining operating margins and huge risks. And we don't think that even if we made the $500 million or $1 billion investment to get a product out that would be competitive with Warcraft that we would actually be successful doing it.

~source Gamespot Article

He later goes on to state that a Call of Duty MMO could happen one day. With Activision and Blizzard merging, it just might happen.

So, who knows. Maybe we are seeing the end of the "Bend it like Blizzard" days starting to stir and true innovation not garnering such a bad taste in the mouths of those who make the decisions. It only takes a "Hey, Funcom did it with combat and had success, why don't we do it with Combat AND Crafting" to keep the ball rolling.

[B. de la Durantaye]

Don't get me started down that path - lol. I could go on for days explaining both how WoW revolutionized and ruined the market at the same time.

[Khalathwyr]

Originally Posted by Machail

Don't get me started down that path - lol. I could go on for days explaining both how WoW revolutionized and ruined the market at the same time.

I know what you mean. It's like that saying, "May you live in interesting times". Both a blessing and a curse.

[Martuk]

Originally Posted by Machail

Don't get me started down that path - lol. I could go on for days explaining both how WoW revolutionized and ruined the market at the same time.

In my humble opinion the only revolutionizing they did was bringing in more players. Their mechanics are nothing new and are in all honesty based on the traditional tried and true systems of previous MMOGs. The gameplay is very much as Everquest plays except the combat has been made a lot lot more solo friendly. The skill tree is borrowed from Diablo 2.

Not that any of that is a bad thing and not to blast the game or anything, but they didn't really bring anything new to the table. Even that super simplified crafting mechanic is very similar to the original Everquest one. Get the items click combine and your finished.

[Keen]

I agree with Martuk. WoW brought nothing revolutionary to mmorpg gaming other than their IP which in and of itself is a rehash. The game itself did revolutionize how mmorpgs and perceived by the rest of the entertainment world but it wasn't because of anything new. It was the combination and polishing of features, mechanics, and ideas that made WoW.

[Drayen]

Probably one of the WoW did better then most games before it would be End Game content, and god how i hate that phrase.

I've played my share of MMOG's and i have to say that relatively they did implement high lvl raiding content much smoother and more accessible then pretty much any game previously.

That being said pretty much every game had raids at or near their respective lvl caps and thus not even this can be considered really innovative.

I also wholeheartedly agree that WoW has stagnated the MMOG market and possibly the pc gaming market as a whole. All the suits in the industry seem to either want to completely emulate them with perhaps just a small change in general story and setting. Or give up at the first mention of a new MMOG project. And by doing so it only serves to further cement WoW as the leading MMOG.

I really think its going to take a company who is willing to tear the dollar signs from there eyes and put more love care effort into truly making something that is unique and with a general passion to want to share their creation. Not that i'm completely impervious to the fact that yes you have to make a profit. But like every other industry around today, once the bottom line becomes infinitely more important to you then the quality and care of what your doing, well then video games will have most likely lost what it is that makes them so wildly popular.

[Smilodon]

Originally Posted by Martuk

In my humble opinion the only revolutionizing they did was bringing in more players. Their mechanics are nothing new and are in all honesty based on the traditional tried and true systems of previous MMOGs. The gameplay is very much as Everquest plays except the combat has been made a lot lot more solo friendly. The skill tree is borrowed from Diablo 2.

Not that any of that is a bad thing and not to blast the game or anything, but they didn't really bring anything new to the table. Even that super simplified crafting mechanic is very similar to the original Everquest one. Get the items click combine and your finished.

No no no. You and Keen aren't getting off that easy. Back those statements up and explain to us how a game that has brought nothing to the table is somehow greater than the sum of it's parts.