The Stagnation of MMO industry/genre and why

exactly,you cant because it isnt very profitable...not in this particular game world....and this is capitalism..and this is star wars,it is designed to draw upon the star wars fan base...it is designed only for those people who are fans...because star wars is a massive franchise that has keapt on going because the fans are dedicated

the life of most any star wars character of signifigance,is filled with strife and difficulty,and obtaining power in steps,no matter who you are...and that is where the profit in star wars lyes

and if you dont like capitalism,then go somewhere else please

Even in games that have no levels there is still a leveling element witin them meaning you cant do everything on day one. if its not set levels where you attain specific skills its leveling via the attainment of skills and not levels.

Thanks for this WoW fanboi review of MMO's. Very uninspiring and unhelpful.

I completely agree with your post, good sir.

What about progress? There has to be progress. You don't , after all, keep paying monthly fees for theme parks; you pay once and go see the magic mountain. When you want to see the magic mountain again next week, you're required to pay again. That's why you need progress; to give players in game goals that keep them playing the game for more months to come. Your theme park model just wouldn't work financially with a game that is based on monthly fees.

Now, If you would want to make this theme park model work, it would have to be a browser based game, where you pay up every time you want to play and you'll have a certain amount of time, like 6 hours, to spend in the game world, with additional fees whenever you want to see certain "Magic mountains" or just need refreshments. I just don't think that would make for a very fun game.

Yes, they made mistake nr1 on the list: open too many servers and panicked when half the starter-players left.

I agree with this analysis. With the little note that I like factions in MMO's and the setting of a global conflict.

The 'WoW recipe' has failed (more or less) for all that tried it. Except for Blizzard, of course.
Trying to beat the champion at his own game is a solid premise for a failure. Just like in real life.
Even if you pretend that you are not competing with him, you are put next to him, compared to him.

If you are fat, slow, unfit guy, you don't go on the ring versus Vladimir Klitschko (just a random example).
You don't even try to pose next to him.
Of course, you are equally as awesome as he is, but in A DIFFERENT UNIVERSE.

Ignore this common sense, and you will end up beaten, humiliated, laughed at.

I'm sorry to say i just stopped reading after this first sentence. I assume this is the opinion of someone who never played any mmorpg except WoW. Because mmo industry has been creating miracles for sometime, especially for the last few years. If you consider quantity over quality, for example subs. numbers of an online game, you can never get to understand the evolution of mmo industry or how dynamic it is.

illogical..your here,on star wars,your not there,at warcraft...one would wish to stay where all of there needs are taken care of and are satisfied,therefore,you dont like wow,because you are not there at wow

The greatest irony here is that the more mainstream MMOs get, the more dumbed down they will get. Though, I believe we have already reached a saturation point in regards to "dumbing" down this genre.

Think about this: 10 years ago, who was playing MMOs? White males between the ages of 12 and 30. And not many of them either, mostly the loners and computer geeks. Now, everyone plays MMOs, whether it's Farmville or SWTOR or WoW or whatever.

The only way for game companies to reach everyone is to make everything easy and accessible. It's not like Call of Duty where you know your audience. I would wager there aren't as many housewives or grandpa's playing CoD as there are playing SWTOR. It has a more mass market appeal now which is great! But concurrently it also means to keep everyone happy, game companies have to create easy content that takes time rather than skill.

edit: My point is, the "stagnation" as you call it is 100% intentional by the game developers. You can't make a super innovative game that breaks the mold because noone will play it. A small subset of players will love it sure, but it won't have massmarket appeal. EQ never had mass market appeal nor did UO. Both of which are still around in some form and have a dedicated fanbase. They never achieved massmarket success like WoW. That's why wow is the "grandfather." It make MMOs more M than ever before.