The Stagnation of MMO industry/genre and why

Oh, I have no doubt someone will surpass WOW's success one day. WHICH day is the question. (Or rather, which YEAR)

If WOW is the peak of MMO achievement, then I truly weep for the genre.

So your idea is, essentially, throw away everything that has defined the MMO since Everquest.

And replace it with what?

Saying we should dump the old model is easy... And really old news.

I agree. However, there are workarounds that SWTOR can do. I too would not like SWTOR to change a la NGE style.

I'm not even sure it can be implemented with current technology (especially for the no sharding requirement).

I'm just saying that designers had better think of the next level of MMO design. Don't be mediocre. Don't try to copy WoW. Innovate and profit from that. If players still don't know what I am talking about, let me point to you this series called "Big, Bigger, Biggest"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big,_Bigger,_Biggest

It's about how we get modern things by building on the achivements of the past. I see the three milestones of MMO in the games UO, Everquest and WOW. We are due for the next milestone but somehow it's not happening because of all these inertia or mental block.

The genres popularity is entirely due to WoW.

Not liking a game personally is one thing. Pretending it's some sort of blight on the genre is another.

From design perspective, a "limit the number of people in a location" strategy is acceptable until hardware or software can catch up.

As long as I can play with any player in the same game, that is good enough for me as a player.

Did I say throw away everything?

If you look at history of MMOG, every MMOG "threw away" something that does not work. Corpse run. Anyone still remember those?

If a feature of MMOG is impeding fun, then it should be discarded.

Throwing away bad features is not a bad thing.

I really think this games mechanics were dumb down to the point where the player was able to progress to quickly. Bualders gate with the D&D license is a perfect example of how mechanics in a game should be... DEEP! I picked that game up on GoG, and the game still surprises me on how well they implemented RPG elements. 10 years later I'm still finding new ways to play

TOR isn't really a RPG as more as it is just an adventure game where you progress get new moves and get better armor. Item hunt isn't enough to sustain the 2012 gamer. BW needs to go back to their roots and figure out that story needs deep game mechanics to keep it sustainable

My issue is that Innovation does NOT equal profit.

You frame situation in a way that suggests changing the formula completely is a no-brainer when it isn't.

You are actually correct in the sense that nothing except something truly different will approach WoWs success, but there is still plenty of money to be made with the theme park MMO model as it stands. Particularly since no MMO to date has done what WoW did with Everquest.

Take everything it did right, and do it better.

Companies are stil trying to simply improve on WoWs model.

I don't think you understood what I am saying.

Imagine Everquest was all there is to MMO. Imagine WOW did not exist. Wouldn't that be sad for the MMO genre?

So similarly, isn't it sad that WOW is all there is as far as MMO is concern? You mean you don't think the genre can be BETTER than it is now? We have already reached perfection?

For me, the answer is no. The MMO can and should take the next leap forward. My original post is my opinion of what should be done to take the next leap.

we may never have another wow in the market, they came around at the right time with the right product, and for me they have harmed the genre more than helped it, but thats another story.

I think allot of mmo players are getting tired of the wow play model, strip away the fluff and easy play modes of wow and at the core you have eq, so pretty much we have been playing the same model since the late 90's, with different twists and turns.

One major issue I have with today's heavy theme park games is your toon, dosen't feel like it lives in the world, your just playing through, and when they add content, it is not really new content( how many ferris wheels do you need in the park) just more of the same, another war zone anotther raid, even though we already have a bunch, what we lack is diversitiy in our game play, maybe some sandbox elements might help mix things up.

On the other hand a true sandbox game lacks allot as well, no real content, swg was more like a sim, but one thing it had was to me it felt like my toon lived in the world, I played the game for 4 years through all the changes, and it was not the game that kept me playing but my friends, over all my friends and I, thought the game really sucked but we made our own fun.

I have no idea what today's mmo's need, maybe a combo theme park and sandbox with a little fps thrown in, more non combat activities, here Tor it could be cantina games, pod and swoop racing.
Good open world pvp that has faction perks like DAOC, not just a silly gear grind.

I know if I was a compnay with a game in devlopment that was using the wow play model, I might have reason for concern.

I kinda wonder how the secret world will do, it's a skill based game, I know gw2 will do well at first, the buy to play model is popular, but when I tested gw2 I still seen many elements from other games, and it did not feel that new to me, the world vs world was really good.

I hope someday some company will take a chance on somethig new, I do know one thing mmo's as we know them are changing, for the good or bad, they will not be what we are platying today in the not to far future.