Profile: DeserttFoxx
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With all the new MMOs coming out in the next year, there seems to be a pattern set in stone. Write a story, announce it to the public, and make certain the game revolves around some existing IP, if it doesn’t, make sure it has dragons and buildings made of stone. MMOs just can’t seem to stray from the fantasy genre, nor can an original title seem to make its way onto the market. All the planned big mmos seems to be based off another game or story that was either a movie or an existing game and turned into an MMO. Which is fine, it worked for WoW, no reason it can’t work for everything else.

I don’t mind playing existing IPs, I will admit, I am looking forward to the KOTOR MMO, id also play the Dragonball MMO, and if it every surfaced, a Pokemon MMO. Its not the fact that they are existing IPs that bother me, it’s the fact that they offer nothing new to the genre. Developers think it is enough to take the IP and basically drag and drop their lore over existing mechanics and figure it should be enough to start siphoning money from their fanbase.

I remember the days when the only MMOs were EQ, DAoC , Ultima and a  few others. MMO gaming was so esoteric that the concept of paying a monthly sub was laughable to some people. And then with the success of World of Warcraft, it seems a lot of companies want to jump into the untapped market of making MMORPGs, but they all seem to be going about it the same way. Taking an existing IP and following as closely to World of Warcraft’s mechanics as they can, hoping if they can get it in sync they can take some of that blizzard cash for themselves. Its painfully obvious that developers or publishers don’t want to stray too far from that formula because they seem to be afraid to fail.

Another thing they are afraid to stray from is the sword and magic fantasy era, take Warhammer for example, now when I play Warhammer I only play the 40k version, and it is based in the very distant future, which is awesome. But of course when they decide to go MMO, they decide to base it in the time of sword and magic, why; Gamers need another fantasy MMO like they need a hole in the head.  Same goes for Aion, now Aion is different, it is being built from the ground up, but of course it is stuck in the fantasy era.

Are developers afraid to take the genre elsewhere? Why are there no modern MMO being planned, or Future, or steam punk, there are a few sci-fi but of course, that’s only because starwars and star gate are sci-fi, if they could find a reason in the lore to go fantasy I’m sure they would. I was really disappointed in final fantasy with this regard as well, now, when you think final fantasy you think Cloud, Sephiroth, Squal, or Tidus, and all of final fantasy worlds I remember were a unique mix of sword and magic and futuristic touch. I love the fact that you could run into a guy with a machine gun while you are using swords and staff, it didn’t have to make sense it was just enjoyable. So of course I was disappointed when the final fantasy mmo was another pure fantasy based MMO.

There are a few new IP out there, like Darkfall, but again they are stuck in the sword and magic era. My thoughts are, with total freedom to create whatever you want, why limit yourself to the rules of dungeons and dragons, why choose a genre? Why not, we have flying cars and dragons, and there is no explanation for why dragons exist alongside flying cars, who cares? Why is it, the only MMOs being produces in the future are riding off current IPs with established lore, do the developers not realize that existing lore is just an unnecessary shackle? And they could do so much more, and have so much more freedom if they just started creating their own games, with their own story from the ground up?

It’s not just the genre; it seems developers all follow the same set of contrived rules when it comes to class creation. Now I am not talking about the archetype system, i firmly believe every class needs to fit somewhere, and the 4 main and only archetypes are Tank, Close range Damage dealer, Long range damage dealer, and Support which includes healers and buffers. But why these pointless rules, why is it that every tank must be weak in terms of strength, every damage dealer must be a glass cannon, every support character must be supremely weak and inept, totally in capable of managing on their own? Why is it that, if someone uses magic they must be a mage, therefore must be long range and in robes? Why is the only way to be a tank, is to have a shield and heavy armor and standing up in the frontlines getting bashed around.

I really don’t know what to expect in the future for MMO, nothing seems too particularly inspiring, or next gen. Just the same things re-hashed over and over again. It seems like developers make a new game, and offer 1 new feature and it is enough for people to hop on and follow it for 3 years.

Take a serious look at the upcoming MMO and, if you like make a list of all the new things they are bringing and really gauge whether or not this mmo is worth your time, or even worth you dropping your current mmo.

I will start with Warhammer; the only new feature it is bringing to the genre is public quests. It originally had the level diversity system, where every time you gain a level your character would change in a way that would make you look unique, so by level 40 orcs would be bigger in actual size,  chosen would be darker and more sinister, and.. That’s all I can think of, the feature was dropped so Warhammer went from 2 new features, to 1. Age of Conan, new combat system, that is pretty big, not my cup of tea but impressive none the less, now before you say Warhammer has a new combat system too, I assure you, once you play it, you will be able to associate every combat mechanic with something found in another existing MMO with W-A-R in the title. Age of Conan also offered Nudity and sex, which I something not done in mmos, but they backed down from that and went partial nudity, so they added 1 and a half new features.

There isn’t much inspiration and I often ask myself why I still follow MMOs, it seems that nobody who enjoys MMOs actually makes them, otherwise they would realize it is time for something new, and no gamer wants to play the same re-hashed shit over and over again. Time to go wait for the next mmo, with another, solo-party- raid/pvp system.