Profile: Moodah
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• • Blizzard COO: Our new MMO is “cool, new, different, next generation”

  • The way I see it, the game is either so far far away that by the time it comes out wow will be entirely obsolete and they will be ready to switch to a new project, or, the game is something so different than wow that it appeals to the entirely different demographics, even being just a niche game.

    I somehow don't believe that blizz will shoot themselves in the foot and spend money to develop a game that will take the customers away from their main cash-cow.

  • Posted: 11/15/08 2:07 AM
    General Discussion
• • Did WoW put the nail in the coffin for niche mmos?

  • I do not think releasing a wow clone is safe. People never go for them en'masse and once they realise that the game offers nothing really new compared to the already established polished game they have been playing and have all the characters and social conections already established, they are going to cancel and go back to the original game.

    That is the reason no other MMO than wow managed record numbers recently - they all try to appeal to the same populace and steal wow's players, but once the intrigued players come over and try it, and realise there is almost nothing new, they just go back.

    Thinking that making a wow clone is a safe bet is wrong, its just that people didn't realise yet.

    Making a next big thing will be a combination of innovative approaches to the stale genre, coupled with good funding, most likely from the developers outside the genre who will be able to think outside the established ways, because the current "old" companies prove over and over and over that they are just plain unable to think outside certain, let's call them dogmas.

    Here is a short list of what I think are the areas that are the future of the genre:

    - player created content

    - customisation of the character and impact of the surroundings and the way you play to the look of the character

    - quests getting deeper than "bring 10 badger toenails" wrapped in a pretty paper.

    - influence of the player on the gameworld and certain events influencing how the world looks like (pre - searing and post searing ascalon in GW )

    and many many more,

    yet for some reason we are stuck with the formula:

    - add 2 or more factions that are unable to win or lose and are stuck in eternal status quo

    - add a couple of run-on-the-mill classes

    - create a couple of playfields

    - add levels

    - add a bunch of kill and collect quests

    - create a couple of instances and put a boss in the end of them

    - add water

    et voila - your next MMORPG is created - now go think why your players are not staying.

  • Posted: 11/11/08 7:33 AM
    General Discussion
• • Level 25+ always giving up :((

  • I don't think the problem is just war or the players, its the problem of the entire genre where developers are just unable to think outside of the box and each generation of games every couple of years does not bring anything fundamentaly new, except minor tweaks.

    Gamers do not want to do the same thing over and over again, and sooner or later comes a critical treshold where they just don't want to do it anymore. I leveled my anarchy char to 220, I left my WoW char at 70, why the hell whould I want to go through the exactly same process again with a different skin.

    The process HAS to change enough so that it feels different and in current wave of MMOs it just does not. Instead becoming deeper and deeper and offering more and more options, they are becoming more and more shallow with less and less options. WoW is not to blame for it, because wow does very good what it is supposed to do. Companies and developers with unreasonable thinking that if they offer what wow offers with some minor tweaks is going to guarantee the success are to blame.

    Why would anyone in their right mind after lets say maxing a char in a couple of previous generations of games, lets say EQ, AO, WoW etc, go through the exactly same process in a new game - there is no logic behind it. The expirience of the new game has to be fresh for you to do it and that is the fundamental reason people are becoming boring and dumping the new MMOs faster and faster.

    It's the "been there - done that" feeling.

    It's just mind boggling how the developers are just plain unable to process that fact.

  • Posted: 11/11/08 5:42 AM
    WAR (Warhammer Online)
• • EVE "Walking in station" and how will it change the game forever (or could)

  • One of the things that distingushes CCP from other MMO companies is that they are seriously expanding the game mechanics with each and every expansion, while most others only add more of the same with different skins on and a couple more level. With every EVE expansion there are either more different things to do, or there are more ways to achieve the same thing. Game becomes more and more complex and not just bigger.

    I am sure that they will employ the same approach with WiS. At first they will introduce it, and put some things that you can do, and then over the period they will work on broadening and deepening the expirience, making it more complex.

     

     

  • Posted: 11/11/08 4:42 AM
    EVE Online
• • Oversimplification: Warhammer's biggest flaw

  • am I getting this straight - you want MORE CC in WAR???

  • Posted: 11/11/08 1:40 AM
    WAR (Warhammer Online)