MMORPG Evolution

1up.com has a piece looking at how Massively Multiplayer Online Games have evolved from the days of UO and Meridian 59. From the article: "As far as the genre has come, though, MMO gaming has still only barely grown out of its infancy. Blizzard crows that 4 million users globally are hooked to World of WarCraft-but that leaves 6-billion-plus people on Earth yet to be reached. Are MMOs doomed to continue fishing from the same pond of players over and over? Major publishers are asking themselves that very question right now. So are we. Developers must do six very real things to make MMO games reach out to even more people: rethink monthly fees, manage in-game economies in new ways, explore new worlds and themes, use new technology to change the way people access games, weigh the balance between structured storytelling and open worlds, and foster a better sense of community among players."

Comments

Re:Absolute rubbish

[Sandman1971]

Want to hazard a guess at how many people play World of Warcraft because either of the Warcraft connection, or the Diablo/Blizzard connection? I've not seen any figures, but I'd guess it's a significant part of the player base. Speaking from personal experience only, it appears that the number is about 60%. Speaking with my guildmates and people on the various servers I play on, it appears that 6/10 people who are playing WoW never played an MMORPG before WoW. And out of those 60%, most have tried WoW due to having played previous Blizzard games such as Warcraft, Starcraft or Diablo. Again, from past experience, it also appears that most MMORPG players play only one MMORPG at a time. Rare are the people who are, for example, playing and paying for WoW and Everquest at the same time. So as the number of total MMORPG subscriptions rises, there's very little 'double dipping', where one person is paying for more than one subscription. This would indicate, at least from my personal view, that it would indicate the number of players is increasing. So I'm absolutely backing up your statement that "The argument about MMORPGs all drawing from the same pool of customers and simply trading them around in accordance with the latest fads is, and has been known to be for some time, complete and utter rubbish."

Current MMORPGs are doing just fine

[macrom]

Developers must do six very real things to make MMO games reach out to even more people:

rethink monthly fees

I think the game should be handed out for free (or minimal charge of $9.99 for shipping you a live copy). That's the main gripe I hear from a lot of players and friends: that we need to pay to get the game AND pay each month. Of course, after a year, you forget that you even paid for the game...

manage in-game economies in new ways

I think WoW is doing just fine with that. So far it's not like Everquest where within a year you were pretty much useless unless you had platinum pieces.

explore new worlds and themes

Isn't that what City of Heros/Villans does? WoW? Final Fantasy? Star Wars? Sims Online? WTF do you want, a Dukes of Hazzard MMORPG?

use new technology to change the way people access games

Until someone invents new technology for ALL of us, you're just gonna have to use a computer and an internet connection to play. Duh. This statement, to me, is pointless.

weigh the balance between structured storytelling and open worlds

Call me crazy, but I think WoW does a fine job of this.

and foster a better sense of community among players

Humans are humans, and when they get into an online world, they act stupid. There's little accountability for their actions. Again, I think WoW has done a good job of controlling camping (though ninja looting can be a problem, but that's the fault of the player), providing instanced raids for mass amounts of people, faction vs. faction battle, etc. Not sure what the other games are doing, but I think this evolution is happening.

From reading the summary and glancing at the article, am I the only one here wondering if these people have even PLAYED an MMORPG recently?

The most Underrated MMORPG

[AlltheCoolNamesGone]

Eve Online. Sci-fi Space themed MMOG with no level/no grind, excellent player based market, balanced semi consentual pvp.

You can do anything you want when you want without feeling like your falling behind.

Re:Whoa, step back a bit.

[Bellum Aeternus]

This is in agreement with the parent post.

Why don't people get it? Titanic the motherload of movies made something like $500M. WoW has 4M as a user base all paying around $15/month. Unless my math skills are really in the shitter, that's $60M/month or $720M/year. Given the life span of a MMP that beats the crap out of Titanic, or any Hollywood production any day. MMPs can make litterally billions of dollars if they play their cards right. Blizzard has, we can do the math when they shut down the last Realm.