The Stagnation of MMO industry/genre and why

Maybe...maybe not...but it is defiantly doing things its own way and taking a step out of the standard MMO Skinner box

and the fact you dont understand how massively dumbed down WOW was and is, is sad!

Let me guess, you thought the tag line

MMORPG on Training wheels when WOW went public was really talking about how challenging and difficult the game was (LOL)

The game was dumbed down from the word go and there is no hardmode or difficult setting in WOW! Thats why WOW gets blamed for dumbing down the genre to begin with!

*shakes head and wanders off*

Thanks for this thread - I think it is leading to some great discussion! Here's my short list of responses and how they apply to SW:TOR

1. Sharding - While one-world definitely sounds optimal, I feel like at the end of the day this is just a technology issue and while I think it would be a great space for BW to explore for the future of SW:TOR, it sounds impractical to achieve for this MMO. That said, I hope I'm wrong. I think any popular MMO that finds a better solution to Sharding will benefit greatly. I would like to point out one issue of Sharding I find frustrating as it relates to SW:TOR - when I first joined, I had two different circles of friends inviting me to join different servers and I had to chose between the two. That was highly discouraging; even more so when the guild on the server I did join disbanded and the other guild is still going strong. Thankfully by whim of fate we merged to the same server so I was recently able to rejoin.

2. Trinity - as a pen-and-paper storyteller, I find the MMO trilogy appauling. It's reliance deterioriates dynamic conflicts to more static gameplay. It is grand for the purpose of content development and challenge balance, however. The cookie-cutter classes allow the devs to shephard players into easily definable roles which lends towards optimizing the functionality of the playerbase - decreasing frustration, increasing player efficiency and limiting player party min/max abuse (or at least forcing a patterned and controllable min/maxed group). I still find it an abomination tbh, completely unrealistic, and it's the thing that constantly draws me back to another, previously mentioned MMO where I feel I have more flexibility to play what a want with the build I want and succeed in nearly any group I can organize. I digress - in terms of SW:TOR, it's off-the-table at least for the foreseeable future. Through and through, SW:TOR bows to the Trinity in design and execution and I don't see that changing.

3. Factionalism - in short, I feel this one is off-the-table as well, but here I could be wrong moreso than in #2. That you have light-side and dark-side on the same faction offers some glimmer of hope. But let's be real: classes are mirrors between factions, so would it matter if it changed? If the Hutts could team my Sith with a Jedi for a game of Huttball would it matter? Other than the chance of reducing premade groups - not really; not until we see some difference in functionality between our canon factions, I believe nothing is going to change here.

4. Grinding & Leveling - here is where I see SW:TOR chance to modernize the genre. Then again, the up & coming video has already announced "More Levels!" so obviously they're focused on "in-the-box" solutions to the common MMO problems. No offense, but pandering to grinders is like feeding addicts - and maybe that's where they see their dollar signs. SW:TOR, you had me at "story-driven". We've had - correct me if I'm wrong - one community-wide event since launch (Rakghoul Outbreak)? There is so much hope that BW can create something more than a level & gear-grind - that they can fill these planets with unique stories; that they can implement a 3D spaceflight-simulator with custom ships; that they can empower the player-base to wage interstellar RvR... and to be blunt, they are failing miserably.

To summarize relative to new announcements, the exciting arrival of "New Levels!" and "New Never-before-seen Planet!" were two of the most disappointing additions to SW:TOR I've seen to date. Why do we need a new planet when we have numerous planets that are SEVERELY under-utilized?

Here is my hope for SW:TOR, relative mostly to #4 as my concerns for #1-3 are expressed above:

1) Cooperative-play level-scaling - if I group with someone of higher level, my level adjusts to slightly below theirs in terms of functionality and we are restricted to quests that are not on the classes main storyline. Next, scale content to the party, or party to content allowing quests basically anywhere in your vast universe. Lastly, reward this kind of social play b/c it's a good thing. You already have a scaling formula b/c you use it in PvP so I know the shell is there. Add an incentive like giving bonus rewards for completing quests never achieved by the players and the entire world re-opens - all those planets, all those missed quests...

2) Better utilize the worlds you have created - when I select to land on a planet, it disappoints me everytime because there's only one place to land. How can that be? There's a whole planet there, how can I explore if my option is just to travel to planet? Why not, instead of adding a new planet, just add an extra dot on Tattoine for us to land and quest? Or allow us to scan the planet ala ME-style and find randomly generated quests with unique mats? Frankly I think the inability of SW:TOR to use the assets it has is frustrating to the player-base.

3) Must have better space combat with better starship development and customization. We hear you're working on it, why not work with it on us - or am I missing the dialogue? Frankly I think you could buy the license to X-Wing and Tie-Fighter and just terminal them into the game with rewards being given to the players for participating and I-V and coffee sales would probably skyrocket.

TLDR

Op - thanks for thread
Devs - think outside of the box and give us more than a level grind

OP your are pretty much right in everything youve said but you forgot the huge amount of money involved in developing an AAA title , so much money being used to create a game like swtor kills any thoughts of innovation incase it is not popular and the game dies , the mmmorpg genre has not moved on or evolved in any manner since everquest 1 , everything that made that a success is still the core of every mmo created after it , sure wow added bells and whistles and prettier interfaces etc but basicly it was a clone .

the genre is dead in my veiw and till someone with substantial amounts of money takes a risk on introducing new and exciting ideas we wil be stuck with this ancient game formula for years to come , star wars galaxies was offering something exciting for awile but sony got cold feet and with nge perverted a great promise into something was a gaming equivalent of a wall street crash

Good post, it's worth noting though that almost all of those complaints are addressed in GW2.

It's the first MMO that's trying to repeat the same old mistakes.... unlike TOR who deliberately copied those same mistakes.

There are still the heroic settings for raids in WoW for the exceptional players like yourself. Have you downed heroic Deathwing before the pre expac nerfs? If you have not, then I suggest you donot know what you are talking about.

There is only one reason the genre has stagnated, and its not a wall of text.

It is the new generation of gamers that are childish, self centered, picky, demanding, cheap, rude, lazy, inexperienced. They want everything, even their ability to have fun handed to them on a silver platter with perfect attunement and alignment....all for 50 cents a day.

What has been forgotten in this world of instant queues and cross server LFGs is that a MMORG is just an environment and it is up to the player to immerse themselves into that environment, make friends and contact, share adventures with others.

Not what is happening. These kids want to log on, queue, blast through a dungeon without regard or even knowing the other players, get a purple so they can stand in-front of the bank showing it off while posting on the message boards how the game "sucks" and is boring. In short, both yelling and thinking "ME, ME, ME, look at me, listen to me, give me attention, its all about ME". LOL

In short, there is nothing wrong with the genre, its the players that are broken. ;p

I think the problem is that everyone expects Warcraft out of the box for any new MMO but forget that it took Blizzard 10 years to get Warcraft to where it is. In the early days, warcraft had all the same problems Star Wars does now. I went thru several free-transfer waves where blizzard was trying to keep the servers balanced when they started getting underpopulated. People constantly complained about a lack of content until the first x-pack came out. A decade later and 4 x-packs later its ok content wise but people still complain about this imbalance and that imbalance. MMOs will never be perfect. They can't by design because they are evolving products that never end.

If you're paying a subscription for something, it's not childish to be upset if what you're paying for is not available consistently. There isn't a single industry on the planet that can get away with this except for games. If you paid for a movie ticket, but were told, "sorry the theater is full, please wait an hour" the entire movie industry would collapse.

Hmm...electricity, water, telephone, internet service...