[PATV] Monday, August 1, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 1, Ep. 2: The Future of MMOs

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[PATV] Monday, August 1, 2011 - Extra Credits Season 1, Ep. 2: The Future of MMOs

This week, we discuss Massively Multiplayer Online games and their future as a genre.

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Pyrocat

Amazing. Have you seen Massively Fun's WordSquares? http://www.wordsquared.com/ MMO + Puzzle.

HollyGreen

Great prediction on the future of MMOs dipping into other genres; this has already somewhat come to pass with games like End of Nations, the MMORTS.

poisonivy47

I just started watching this show and I am working my way through all the episodes, they are great!

I spend a lot of time on Neopets which has a lot of the characteristics of MMOs, but I am not sure if people define it as one (even though they probably should). I never hear it talked about in these sorts of forums, probably because people think that it is just a 'virtual pet site' and don't realize that there is a rich world and mythology, huge in-game economy, and regular world events that many participate in. Neopets has been around for 14 years (and so there are 14 years worth of content on the site which is updated daily!) and was bought by Viacom in the mid 2000s. Although it is targeted toward kids, in my experience most of the players are teenagers and older. I think that Neopets makes most of its money off of the 'microtransactions' that you talk about. They are dabbling in subscriptions, it is primarily a free site and you do not need to subscribe to have access to content.

I would love to see an episode that talks about games that fall under a more expansive definition of MMOs and what that landscape is like and what you think its future is.

RoyceSraphim

Watching this and he predicted what happened to SW:TOR, Guild Wars 2, and Square-Enix's ad-fueled free browser games.

BlakeStone

Seeing Auto Assault used as the example of a cancellation reopened an old wound.

I loved that game, and I miss it so much.

MisterSelmo

Based on what you predicted, and the tendency of smart people's predictions to be completely subverted by stupid mass mania culture... MMORPG's will always remain subscription based and WoW will never end.

drmonmons

I wonder how you feel about MMOs like Secret world. That aren't quite perfected but are trying really hard to be different. I love it for its lovecraft references and it's investigation quests. But it seems most reviews are split right down the middle and it really didn't do great first off

Kexruct

I find it odd that even though it's second only to WoW with its playerbase, Runescape is almost never mentioned when MMOs are brought up. I guess it's a sore spot with a lot of people. It's surprisingly good, though you do have to overlook numerous flaws.

HLgamer

WOW is pretty much a clone of the MMORPGs ther preceeded, primarily EQ. Poor customer service is what opened the door for WOW to blossum in the shadow of EQ. Other EQ clones at the time failed because of quality of cost issues and the resulting lack of players to keep it exciting.
I think the future of MMORPG games specifically if they are going to survive will be targetting the casual players to give them the full experience without the time commitment. Still having Group options and rolling dungeon/raid options without the requriements of everyone having to be there al lthe time at the same time. Unfortunately the dragging of the feet and the reinvention of hardcore committment requriements are making the casual player base leary of bothering. The guy who can only play 30 minteus at a time max 3 or 4 times a week gets a why bother feeling when eh plays because the noob who started today and has no life leaves him in the dust and he has no way to compete in any arena of the game as a result. I think to accomplish this we need a more content and strategy base with personnal space for trophies and rewards rather than level driven content.

Nomud

Everquest Next is the future of MMOs