The Stagnation of MMO industry/genre and why

2. In fact I do have some idea, but since I am not a game developer, I have no idea if a role would be fun. One e.g. is the "thief" role. (in modern or sci-fi settings they could be hackers) Someone who can help to bypass traps, detect hidden doors, unlock locked doors etc... If this is a non-essential role, then all these bypass traps things could be to make the dungeon run less tedious (but without such a role, can still complete the dungeon).

4. Well, if you noticed, these are still epeens. Just that they are purely cosmetic epeens. Another way to show growth and power is to give abilities that does not affect combat gameplay much. For e.g., an experience player could have the teleport anywhere ability to show his "power" but essentially does not affect dungeon runs. He can still group up with a new player. Of course, the experienced will be wearing nice looking gear the LOOK powerful while the new player will essentially dress in rags. Really, it's up to the designer to design rewards that don't necessary makes the more experienced player more powerful. (Just to put things into perspective, the concept of bolster already cause this to be a reality. This is why a level 10 and a level 49 can be playing together in a warzone)

Nothing has changed. MMORPG's were always niche and not that very popular overall compared to bigger genres like FPS and RTS. The only thing that did change was WoW introducing a few million people to MMORPG's that wouldn't have otherswise bothered with them. You still got MMROPG's players and then you got WoW players that try new games but mostly end up just going back to WoW.

I honestly don't know how developers drum up a nice sum of money to make these games when it's pretty much guranteed that you'll lose half your players inthe first 6 motnhs no matter what.

On the contrary, what I am suggesting is to make the next profitable game. I'm not saying by going to the next level, you will sell the game and become rich. You still have to factor in gameplay and other things.

What I am saying is that if you can go to the next level in MMO design, you add more element of FUN to the genre and gaming business is all about FUN.

For one....donot release a MMO today which lacks "any" of the features the others have. Doing that will auto set you up for failure. Or at the best, lackluster sub base. If any company wants to challenge WoW for example, must at the min have all the features it has and then they need to add something WoW does not have.

Got to love all the "WoW clone" comments in here. WoW is a clone of MMO's before that as well. The only difference is that Blizzard didn't focus on the niche market. The problem with MMO's is the fact that it runs on subscriptions. The only thing that game companies are interested in is making you want to extend that subscription every month. To do that you need content and lots of it. To make that a little easier they introduce grind. It's basically the carrot on the stick concept. After 3 MMO's you get bored with that concept.

Except, WoW did things better than anyother MMO on the market when it was released. Atleast in the opinion of the millions of players who signed up for it then and a ton still play it for the same reasons.

Of course you are entitled your opinion. The original post is after all mine as well.

That said, there are some points I would like to comment on.

1. This is classic chicken-and-egg issue. If there is no will to do so, then of course no one will do it. If no one will do it, then it cannot be done. The way I see this is one developer starts with pushing the boundry. [You can even use phasing technology to divide the same server to many phases or instance but the difference is that players can still theoretically play with one another (somewhat like what SWTOR is doing now)]. Once someone starts pushing the boundry, others will push it further. 100 years ago, we were flying with canvas plane and people shooting one another using machine guns. Now, we fly in composite jets and uses radar guided missiles.

2. This is also another chicken-and-egg issue. The trinity is a "proven" way because the dungeons are designed for trinity fights. Re-design the dungeon for non-trinity and suddenly, it is not so proven anymore. Think about it. Was Esseles/Black Talon more fun or was hammer station more fun? (personally, I felt Esseles/BT was more fun due to the story element)

4. You can progress without the natural power imbalance. For e.g. A new player may buy or earn a 20% speed mount but a player who played 6 months may buy or earn a 200% speed mount or flying mount. The more experienced player has quality-of-life reward and also bragging rights. But both can still team up to kill bosses or fight one another. My point is why have the grind? The whole concept of grinding does not makes sense in MMO.
Let me use the roller coaster as an example. Do you care if you get to the END of the roller coaster ride or was the ride itself fun? This is what I am saying. Designers need to concentrate more on the journey rather than the end. Once you do that, you don't even need to provide the player with a reward because the game experience is the reward itself. (It's easier to envision PvP as something that can be designed without progression as reward but the same thing can be said of PvE as well)

That's a rather unfair comparison. It's better to get a percentage of players which give the game a high rating. That way you can get a good idea about which MMO has a higher percentage of happy players. Besides; you can't realistically conclude that having a high subscription number automatically means that millions of people think that MMO did it better.

Anyway, I'd rather see MMO developers stop focusing on getting the largest subscriber base. I want those niche games which are catered to my taste. Not something which is catered to everyone's taste.

Funny you said that. SWTOR was my third MMO (WOW was first, and WAR second). And I am very tired of this concept. (I am not counting MMOs that I dabble and got bored within a few days, like LOTRO, D&D, AO, EVE etc...)

I remember someone said that about Everquest. That their 300K sub is the best an MMO game can garner. Then came WoW.

Personally, I think WoW can be topped or exceeded. As I said, the genre just has to go to the next level.