Even developers have been saying that "theory" of yours. Yet no one seems to have come up with anything that stands the test of time for a large audience. EverQuest and WoW have been the longest runners in this scenario and they both use the +1 upgrade tradition. The exact reason that people that have been playing this genre for 20 years have gotten so apathetic about doing Mythic difficulties etc.I think the issue with the MMO industry is that they're trying to make games that last a life time ... because that's what we want, but reality is that we shouldn't expect a game to last 25+ years. No game can be designed with a multi-decade life span baked in with out certain parts of that life span sucking major ass.
I mean think about it... If they design a MMORPG from the get go to last 30 years, that means they are going to have to make the first x number of years be super dull and slow in advancement. If they don't do that, then you end up with the same failed situation we have today all over the industry where the best part of the game is the initial leveling up experience. After that, you are left with minor upgrades and insignificant character advancement.
For instance, early on in EQ, fear was an annoying thing that could happen to your character that added flavor to the game. After you get enough AAs to make fear no longer an issue at all (100% fear avoidance basically), where can you go with that system at that point. You have basically removed a game mechanic from the game. This is the kind of game evolution that is in all MMORPGs to date and leads to the games becoming a hollow shell of themselves after a number of expansions are released. And, lets nor forget how something so simple as getting a piece of gear early on that gave you +5 to some stat was exciting and made a noticeable difference in your character ends up being +1231241414541 to all stats a dozen expansions down the line and you see no noticeable difference at all.
To the industry to advance, they're going to have to eliminate the idea of an ever-expanding game. Instead, they should focus on an ever-evolving game IP. Gamers should go in to buying a new MMORPG with the expectation that the game they are buying is a one off game that is part of an IP they enjoy. The next expansion is actually a new game that follows the same IP, but is slightly different and/or evolved in some way. Your character can continue on from the last game, but it is only continuing on in that it has the same name, same looks, same guild, etc, but in reality, you are playing a new game from level 1 in that game. It's familiar, but it's not just an expansions of the last game. The old game would still exist and you can go back and play it anytime you want, but it will never actually expand. If there is a subscription fee, then it is a subscription fee for all games under that IP license.
Another thread of armchair game design for a dying genre. Be sure to format your posts with 3 or more paragraphs. Peak autism is encouraged. At least one EQ server drama and one WoW sever drama derail.
< unclerico>If the RL woulda just made me MT, we’d a been server first.</unclerico >
Oh fuck off. Unless you were joking…thenMy thread was a emo post about how we've been talking about games and they're not delivered.
Maybe don't joke or condescend Autism. When any rational adult human being sees you doing it they think less of you and wonder where your parents were as a child. I'm just trying to educate you since nobody else did.
I don’t have it in me to raid. What I want is a small group focused game. A mix of instanced and open world content. It’d be cool to have critical open world bosses and dungeons but have a selection of procedurally generated instances for 5-6 players. Perhaps the group leader could make a few selections at the zone in about mobs and time length. It would be like a DM setting up a random zone. Item rewards would be a mix of preset and random loot. You could only zone from within the world and perhaps the most lucrative would be at the end of an open zone dungeon.
Classes would exist, but talent trees would allow a large degree of choice. Spells might even should be all talent points. Perhaps a “role” tree and “class” tree. I dunno. First get the content right.
Another thread of armchair game design for a dying genre. Be sure to format your posts with 3 or more paragraphs. Peak autism is encouraged. At least one EQ server drama and one WoW sever drama derail.
< unclerico>If the RL woulda just made me MT, we’d a been server first.</unclerico >
This is actually one area I could see MMO's hugely benefit from. If you have AI controlled NPC's that act like real people - then the game would be immensely more real. The immersion of a living, breathing world would be something inspirational and at the same time, creepingly scary because of how much it might draw people into it.Surely AI is at a point it could be leveraged for greater dynamics in the open world and instances content.
Asian MMOs have been trash since the very start and always will be. If the gacha grinder garbage isn't enough to turn off a normal Westerner, it's the faggot weeb stylizations comically mismatched with plagiarized Western fantasy themes that does it.The genre is actually in the midst of a "resurgence", but it's mostly coming from places like Japan and Korea. The problem is, you have a bunch of boomers so stuck in the whole, "EVERYTHING NEEDS TO EXIST EXACTLY LIKE IT USED TO!" mindset that they can't enjoy anything that is even remotely different.
I wanna make an MMO that lasts a month and then resets. Let people sign up for four different types of month-long campaigns:I think the issue with the MMO industry is that they're trying to make games that last a life time